A Japanese journalist arrested in late July while covering a protest against the junta has been sentenced in Burma to three years in prison for violating immigration law, a Japanese diplomatic source told AFP on Thursday.
Toru Kubota, who appeared at his trial in good health according to this source, quoting his lawyer, had already been sentenced last week to two terms totaling ten years in prison for the dissemination of information harmful to the security of the country. and for encouraging dissent against the ruling military.
122 journalists detained
These sentences were combined, reducing to seven years the expected duration of his imprisonment for these two cases, said a spokesman for the junta. According to his Instagram account, the 26-year-old videographer made a documentary in 2019 about the Rohingyas, a Muslim minority living in Burma who fled a bloody crackdown by the army and Buddhist militias.
He is the fifth foreign journalist since the military coup of February 1, 2021 to have been arrested by the junta, after the Americans Danny Fenster and Nathan Maung, the Pole Robert Bociaga and the Japanese Yuki Kitazumi, who all ended up being released and expelled. According to a report by Reporting ASEAN as of March 31, 122 journalists have been arrested since the putsch and 48 are still detained.
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Only China jailed more journalists than Burma in 2021, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Since the coup that plunged the country into a bloody conflict, more than 2,300 civilians have been killed by the security forces, according to a count by a local NGO. The junta, which accuses its opponents, has more than 3,900.
SEE ALSO – Burma: “The conditions are not met” for the return of the Rohingyas, according to the UN