Status: 11/12/2021 10:41 am
In Myanmar, the US journalist Fenster has been sentenced to eleven years in prison. He is accused of disseminating false information and incitement. What exactly he is supposed to have committed, however, never became clear during the trial.
A US journalist detained in Myanmar has been sentenced to 11 years in prison. A court found Danny Fenster guilty of incitement, among other things, said his lawyer Than Zaw Aung.
The chief editor of Frontier Myanmar online magazine was accused of disseminating false or inflammatory information. Windows would also be accused of contacts with illegal groups and violations of visa regulations, Than Zaw Aung quoted from the guilty verdict.
Court is said to have ignored evidence
In addition, there are two other charges against the 37-year-old window: alleged violations of anti-terror laws and the violation of a regulation that covers cases of high treason and incitement.
Although the prosecution called more than a dozen witnesses in the trial against Fenster, it was never clear which crimes the journalist is said to have committed. The prosecutors’ arguments apparently relied primarily on his employment with “Myanmar Now”. The news agency was one of the media outlets that the junta ordered to close earlier this year.
However, Fenster had already given up his job at “Myanmar Now” in July 2020 and started at “Frontier Myanmar” the month after. The court simply ignored a significant amount of evidence, the online magazine said. There is absolutely no basis for the guilty verdict against windows.
Window in jail since May
The US journalist was arrested at Yangon airport in late May when he was on a flight to Detroit to visit family. Since then, he has been held in Insein Prison in the metropolitan area of Yangon.
Since the military junta came to power and the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi was ousted in February, Fenster has been the only foreign journalist in Myanmar convicted of serious crimes.
The editor-in-chief of “Frontier Myanmar”, Thomas Kean, was concerned about the sentence against his employee. “Everyone at Frontier is disappointed and frustrated with this decision,” Keans said in a statement. “We just want to see that Danny is released as soon as possible so he can go home to his family.”