Japanese journalist sentenced to ten years in prison in Myanmar | Abroad

A Japanese journalist has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for encouraging dissent against the military junta in Myanmar and violating an electronic communications law. A Japanese diplomatic source has reported this to the French news agency AFP.

Toru Kubota was arrested in Rangoon at the end of July when he reported on a demonstration against the junta. The 26-year-old video reporter was tried at Insein Prison in Rangoon, where many political prisoners are held.

According to his Instagram account, in 2019 he made a documentary about the Rohingya, a Muslim minority in Burma who have fled a bloody crackdown by the army and Buddhist militias.

Section 505(b) against dissent is a vaguely worded law, often used against journalists or activists on the pretext that they have made statements that could cause fear or panic in the public, and carries a prison term of up to three years.

Kubota is the fifth foreign journalist to be arrested by the junta since the February 1, 2021 coup, after Americans Danny Fenster and Nathan Maung, Pole Robert Bociaga and Japanese Yuki Kitazumi. They were all eventually released and expelled from the country.

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