US journalist Danny Fenster has been jailed for 11 years in Myanmar | War Stories

GROWTH ISSUE

The editor-in-chief of Frontier magazine has been accused of a number of offenses, including incitement, incitement and ‘terrorism’.

Danny Fenster, a journalist for Myanmar’s Frontier magazine, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison by a federal court.

A 37-year-old man was arrested at Yangon Airport in May, found guilty on three counts, his boss said in a statement.

Frontier said the verdict was announced outside Insein’s Yangon Prison on Friday morning, following a lawsuit filed by the public and the public, as well as “very harsh” sentences in accordance with the law.

The charges against Fenster were found to be linked to allegations that he was working for an online media outlet, Myanmar Now, which he left in June last year.

Fenster contacted Frontier, where he supervises the editor, in July 2020. Frontier found that the court had ignored the most important evidence, including tax returns, which confirmed Fenster’s work in the press.

“There is no reason to accuse Danny of these crimes,” Frontier in Chief Editor Thomas Kean wrote in a statement on Twitter. “His prosecutors testified in court that he had resigned from Myanmar Now and had been working for Frontier since the middle of last year. Everyone at Frontier is frustrated and disappointed with the decision. ”

The verdict comes just days after Bill Richardson, a former US ambassador to the detention center, met with rebel leader Min Aung Hlaing, and prosecutors sued Fenster on charges of “terrorism” and insurgency.

The military arrested President-elect Aung San Suu Kyi and other officials on February 1 to seize power. The move sparked massive protests and anti-government protests in which military officials responded strongly, killing more than 1,000 people and detaining thousands more, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch’s deputy director for Asia, said the court’s decision was “outrageous”.

“(The) The accusations against him are false and false, he has done nothing wrong!” Robertson wrote on Twitter.

Since the overthrow of the government, the military has also banned the internet, shut down satellite television and disrupted independent television stations, and revoked the licenses of several Myanmar media organizations.

In June, two journalists – one from Mizzima and one from DVB – were jailed for failing to comply with an colonial rule that the military had again set up to make “false news” a crime.