Myanmar charges US journalist with terrorism, sedition

Prosecutors in Myanmar have charged an American journalist covering the Southeast Asian country with two new offenses.

Danny Fenster, 37, who is the managing editor of Frontier Myanmar news site, was charged with terrorism and sedition on Tuesday, his lawyer said on Wednesday. He could now be facing a sentence of life in prison in the presently junta-ruled country.

The lawyer, Than Zaw Aung, informed the media that his client, who was arrested at Yangon's international airport as he was fleeing the country in May, was hit with the two new charges under the so-called Counter-Terrorism Act and Myanmar's penal code.

Fenster had been initially charged under the Incitement and Unlawful Associations Act.

He is being held at Yangon's Insein Prison awaiting trial, which is scheduled to begin on November 16.

"He has become quite thin," Than Zaw Aung said, adding that his client "felt disappointed and sad regarding these new charges." He said it was unclear why the new charges had been added to the list of offenses filed against Fenster. "We don't understand why they added more charges but it is definitely not good that they are adding charges."

The judge in the case said on Monday that the prosecution had provided enough evidence for the trial to continue.

Fenster's initial three charges were being heard at a different Yangon court, from where the new charges have been filed.

The new charges came days after former US diplomat and hostage negotiator Bill Richardson met with Myanmar's ruling junta leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, in the capital, Naypyidaw.

US officials have repeatedly demanded Fenster's release.

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Myanmar has been in chaos since the junta seized power in a coup on February 1, ousting the then-de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government.

Since then, more than 1,200 protesters have been killed by security forces in a crackdown on dissent, according to a local monitoring group.

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News media have also been suppressed as the military aims to tighten control over the flow of information, restricting internet access and revoking the permits of local news outlets.

In 2018, two Reuters journalists were jailed for their reporting of the junta's ethnic-cleansing campaign against Rohingya Muslims in the Southeast Asian country.

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The Reuters news agency has confirmed the long-held view that two of its journalists detained by Myanmar were taken into custody for covering state-sponsored violence against minority Muslims.

Human rights groups and diplomats from around the globe demanded the release of the two journalists, who were facing up to 14 years in jail.

Wa Lone, 33, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 29, who had been convicted of breaking the Official Secrets Act, walked free from prison after a presidential amnesty in May 2019, after spending more than 500 days in jail.

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