'FORGETFUL' MYANMAR WITNESS IN REUTERS REPORTERS' CASE WRITES KEY DETAIL ON HIS HAND
A witness in the case of two
Reuters reporters jailed in Myanmar told a courtroom on Wednesday that he wrote
notes on his hand about where the pair were arrested to jog his memory while
giving testimony.
The location of the
arrests has emerged as a key point of contention in the proceedings to decide
whether Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, will be charged under the colonial-era
Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.
At issue is whether
they were arrested immediately after a pre-arranged meeting with police, or at
a routine traffic stop.
The reporters were
detained on Dec. 12, after they said they were invited to dine with two police
officers at a restaurant.
On Wednesday,
prosecution witness Kyaw Shein, a civilian neighborhood-level local official,
said he was present when they were arrested at a police checkpoint, several
hundred meters from the restaurant.
His account of the
arrest largely matched earlier testimony of police officers, who have told the
court the reporters were arrested after they were stopped and searched at a
checkpoint at the junction of No. 3 Main Road and Nilar Road, northern Yangon,
by officers who were unaware they were journalists.
The reporters have
told relatives and their lawyers they were arrested almost immediately after
being handed some papers at the Saung Yeik Mon restaurant by two police officers
they had not met before.
SHOW JUDGE HIS HAND
During cross
examination, defense lawyer Than Zaw Aung asked Kyaw Shein to confirm that he
had looked at his hand when asked by the prosecutor to state the place of
arrest.
Kyaw Shein first
told the court he had written the name of one of the reporters on his hand to
aid his memory. Lawyer Than Zaw Aung then reached through the wooden bars of
the witness stand and turned Kyaw Shein’s left hand over. The judge also asked
the witness to show him his hand.
The defense lawyer
then read for the record that the writing on his hand read:“Thet Oo Maung” - an
alias for Wa Lone - and below it“No. 3 road and Nilar road junction”.
Asked if someone had
told him to write the address where police say the arrest took place, Kyaw
Shein said no. He wrote on his hand because he was“forgetful”, he said.
The government
prosecutor, Kyaw Min Aung, declined to answer questions when approached by a
Reuters reporter after the hearing on Wednesday. Government spokespeople have
declined to comment on the case, citing the ongoing court proceedings.
During Kyaw Shein’s
testimony, the judge asked the court stenographer to record that the witness
was taking a long time to respond to questions.
RESTAURANT OWNER TESTIFIES
Earlier on
Wednesday, another civilian witness, Htay Htay Myint, owner of the Saung Yeik
Mon, testified that she did not recognize Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo. She also
said she was not aware of any dinner meeting, or of any arrest outside her
restaurant that night.
On
cross-examination, she said she did not see the two reporters in her restaurant
on Dec. 12, although she also said that from her position at the cash desk she
would not have seen guests sitting at tables outside the restaurant.
The two reporters
had been working on a Reuters investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya
Muslim men who were buried in a mass grave in northern Rakhine state after being
hacked to death or shot by ethnic Rakhine Buddhist villagers and soldiers.
The military
excavated the shallow grave in December, days after the reporters’ arrests,
saying they had received a tip-off. Authorities are taking action against 10
members of the security forces and six villagers, according to a government
spokesman.
A handcuffed Wa Lone
told reporters at the court that authorities would not have uncovered the
killing if they had not got information from the reporters.
“The role of an
independent media is crucial to solve the Rakhine crisis,” Wa Lone said.“If we
are not reporting about the right information, the government will not know the
real situation on the ground.”
Myanmar’s ambassador
to the United Nations, Hau Do Suan, said this month that the journalists were
not arrested for reporting a story, but were accused of“illegally possessing
confidential government documents”.
The judge adjourned
the proceedings until March 7.
SOURCE: REUTERS
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