Myanmar de facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s reputation is in tatters, with two journalists in the country on Monday being sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of breaching the state secrets law.
Throughout the trial, Suu Kyi had been unmoved by calls to intervene, or even criticise the court case.
The reporters, who worked for Reuters, claimed they were set up while exposing the extrajudicial killing of 10 Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine village in September last year. They claimed they were arrested after the police invited them to dinner in Yangon, and gave them documents. Shortly thereafter, they were arrested by another set of policemen for possessing classified material, indicating a frame-up.
The case had sparked international outcry as an attempt to muzzle reporting on the crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya minority in Rakhine state.
Bill Richardson, a US diplomat and a former Suu Kyi confidante, claims she criticised the two journalists when he tried to raise their plight in person. “Suu Kyi’s response was filled with anger, referring to the journalists as ‘traitors’,” he said.
READ HERE: The story that got the journalists jailed
Suu Kyi could perhaps redeem her reputation a tad if she asks the junta to pardon the reporters.
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