Myanmar court rejects appeal of jailed Reuters reporters

NAYPYITAW, April 23 (MENA) - Myanmar's Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the final appeal of two Reuters journalists and upheld seven-year prison sentences for their reporting on the military's crackdown on Rohingya Muslims, ABC News reported.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo earlier this month shared with their colleagues the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting, one of journalism's highest honors.

The reporters were arrested in December 2017 and sentenced last September after being accused of illegally possessing official documents.

The court did not give a reason for its decision. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who are being held in a prison in Yangon, were not present for the ruling.

Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, had denied the charges against them and contended they were framed by police.

Myanmar's military launched a counterinsurgency campaign in the western state of Rakhine in 2017, driving more than 700,000 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority to flee to Bangladesh.

The Reuters reporters had worked on an investigation of the killing of 10 Rohingya villagers in Inn Din village, for which the government last year said seven soldiers were sentenced to up 10 years in prison with hard labor.