Myanmar court hears appeal of convicted Reuters journalists

YANGON, Myanmar – A court in Myanmar has heard an appeal filed by lawyers for two Reuters journalists sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of illegal possession of official documents, a case that has drawn worldwide criticism and attention to the crisis that drove members of the Muslim Rohingya minority to flee the country.

The court announced a ruling would be issued next month after submissions were made Monday by both the prosecution and lawyers for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who said they were framed by police but were convicted in September.

The journalists had been reporting last year on the brutal crackdown by security forces on the Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. Some 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh to escape the violence of a government counterinsurgency campaign.