A Japanese journalist and documentary filmmaker detained in Myanmar is accused of violating an immigration law and encouraging opposition to the ruling military regime, Burma’s BBC reported today, citing the junta.
Toru Kubota entered Myanmar on a tourist visa on July 1 and was arrested while covering a demonstration in Rangoon on July 30, according to the network’s report. He faces up to five years in prison.
The 26-year-old was arrested on Saturday, along with two Myanmar nationals, near the site of an anti-government demonstration.
He was transferred to Insein prison in Rangoon, where many political prisoners are held, a source familiar with the case told AFP.
“He is in good health and already a delegation from the embassy visited him at the police station where he was being held,” another source told AFP.
He was charged “under Article 505 of the Penal Code and Article 13-1 of the Immigration Act,” the junta said in a statement.
505a, a law that criminalizes inciting subversion and is punishable by up to three years in prison, is widely used by the military to suppress dissent.
Kubota is the fifth foreign journalist to be arrested in Myanmar after US citizens Nathan Maung and Danny Fenster and Robert Bosiaga of Poland and Yuki Kitazumi of Japan, who were all released and deported.
The junta in Myanmar has suppressed press freedom by arresting journalists and photographers and revoking television broadcasting licenses.
As of March this year, 48 journalists remain in detention across the country, according to the NGO Reporting ASEAN.
Source: AMPE
Source: Capital
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