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Myanmar Junta Sentences Japanese Journalist to 10 Years in Prison

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ASEAN Beat | Politics | Southeast Asia

Myanmar Junta Sentences Japanese Journalist to 10 Years in Prison

Kubota Toru, 26, was arrested in July while photographing and filming an anti-coup protest in Yangon.

Myanmar Junta Sentences Japanese Journalist to 10 Years in Prison

An image of Toru Kubota, a Japanese journalist detained in Myanmar while covering a protest, is displayed at the Japan Press Club in Tokyo on Augiust 3, 2022 as his friends gathered at the club calling for his immediate release.

Credit: AP Photo/Yuri Kageyama, File

A court in military-ruled Myanmar yesterday sentenced the Japanese documentary filmmaker Kubota Toru to 10 years in prison on two charges, making him the latest foreigner to fall afoul of the military junta’s legal capriciousness.

Citing an official from the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Reuters reported that Kubota was sentenced to three years in prison for sedition and seven years for violating a law on telecommunications. A separate trial is continuing on a charge of violating an immigration law, hearing on which is scheduled for October 12.

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