The Myanmar’s Supreme Court this week rejected an appeal of two Reuters journalists who last year were sentenced to seven years in jail for breaking the Official Secrets Act. The decision was announced at the Supreme Court building in Nay Pyi Taw on April 23. It means that without a presidential pardon Ko Wa Lone and Ko Kyaw Soe Oo, will serve their seven year sentence at Insein Prison, north of Yangon. At the time of their arrest, the pair were investigating the military-led crackdown in northern Rakhine State in late 2017. Their trial and detention have attracted widespread condemnation. Their wives, who traveled from Yangon to the capital for the hearing, said they were disappointed by the decision. “Our husbands are good people,” Ma Panei Mon, Wa Lone’s wife, told Reuters. “We want them to be released as soon as possible”. After the sentence, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the pair’s prosecution was “unacceptable”.
