Whistle-blowing Myanmar policeman jailed for a year
Officer testified that his colleagues had passed on sensitive information to two Reuters journalists to try to entrap them
A Myanmar police officer who told a court his colleagues had tried to “entrap” two Reuters journalists has been handed a prison term, a police spokesman said on Monday.
Deputy police major Moe Yan Naing, called as a prosecution witness earlier this month in a pre-trial hearing against the journalists, stunned the courtroom when he alleged a senior officer had ordered colleagues to “get” reporter Wa Lone by handing him sensitive files.
The 32-year-old Myanmar journalist and his colleague Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, face 14 years in prison on charges of possessing classified documents related to security operations in Rakhine state, where the military is accused of atrocities against Rohingya Muslims.
They have been detained since they were arrested in December after meeting police.
According to a police spokesman, Moe Yan Naing has been jailed for breaching a police disciplinary act, a charge he had been facing since December for his previous communication with Wa Lone.
Police sources said he was sentenced before he gave his shock testimony – an extremely rare instance of a security official openly challenging superiors in the formerly junta-run country.
“He was sentenced because he told others about information concerned with the police force without permission,” Police Colonel Myo Thu Soe said. He declined to say when the verdict was reached or how long his jail term was. “He was found to have breached the police disciplinary act.”