Myanmar Court Sentences 2 Reuters Journalists to 7-Year Jail Term - Agency

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The journalists were arrested on December 12. They were charged with obtaining secret documents while reporting on the killings of the Rohingya people in the country's Rakhine state.

A Myanmar court found two Reuters journalists guilty of violating the law on state secrets and sentenced them to seven years in prison, Reuters reported Monday.

The time already spent in prison by the defendants since December 12 will be taken into account.

"Today is a sad day for Myanmar, Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, and the press everywhere," Reuters Editor-in-Chief Stephen Adler said in a statement, commenting on the verdict.

Myanmar's Rakhine state has witnessed mass killings and atrocities against the Rohingya, a Muslim minority, since August 2017. According to Amnesty International, the government sanctioned and orchestrated crimes against humanity in the state. Neighboring Bangladesh now shelters over 700,000 Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar for fear of prosecution.

READ MORE: Watchdog Doubts Myanmar's Inquiry to Identify Perpetrators of Rohingya Abuses