American journalist Danny Fenster sentenced to 11 years in jail in Myanmar

3 yıl önce

A Myanmar court convicted American journalist Danny Fenster of three charges and sentenced him to prison for 11 years, imposing the harshest possible sentences for those crimes under the law.

The punitive treatment of Fenster, a 37-year old Detroit native, has been widely condemned by advocates of press freedom, the American government and the international community, as the Myanmar military continues a campaign of imprisoning journalists and activists after taking power in a February coup.

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Fenster was seized at Yangon International Airport in May as he tried to board a flight to Kuala Lumpur and was taken to Insein Prison. He was working as the managing editor for Frontier Magazine, a news outlet focused on Myanmar, at the time.

The prison is notorious for its poor conditions and has been used by Myanmar’s military government to hold scores of political prisoners. He was excluded from an amnesty of more than 5,000 prisoners, including anti-coup protesters, last month.

This week, Fenster was also hit with additional charges including sedition and terrorism charges which carry sentences of up to life in prison.

On Friday, after a trial in a court inside Insein Prison that was closed to the public, he was sentenced to 11 years on charges including a violation of the immigration act and the unlawful associations act. During the trial, the prosecution argued that official records did not accurately reflect where he was employed, as the ruling junta seeks to establish that he was working for Myanmar Now, a different outlet that was banned in the country after the coup.

A statement from Frontier Magazine said the court “disregarded a significant amount of evidence of his employment at Frontier, including tax and social security records and testimony from a Frontier employee.

“There is absolutely no basis to convict Danny of these charges. His legal team clearly demonstrated to the court that he had resigned from Myanmar Now and was working for Frontier from the middle of last year,” said Thomas Kean, Frontier‘s editor in chief.

“Everyone at Frontier is disappointed and frustrated at this decision. We just want to see Danny released as soon as possible so he can go home to his family,” Kean said.