Details have emerged on how a Myanmar Court conspired with the state to frame the two journalists freed Tuesday, May 7.
In Myanmar, the courts are said to be an extension of the state, and that they only rubber-stamp state directives.
Two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had been arrested in 2017 in what the government termed as “possessing state secrets.”
After spending nine months in police custody, the courts finally sentenced the two to seven years in prison, citing that the information the two journalists had were not public.
The courts argued that the information they had could have been dangerous were it to land in the hands of enemies of the state.
The Reuters journalists, however, maintained that the police had framed them by handing the documents to them in a local restaurant.
During the courts proceedings, a police officer volunteered to testify how a police commander gave him the documents to frame the journalists.
The police officer was to be dismissed from the service and sent to jail. His family was later kicked out of police housing.
At the time of their sentencing in September 2018, the scribes maintained their innocence.