Myanmar journalist testifies he didn’t know about documents

Reuters journalist Kyaw Soe Oo (center) talks to journalists as he leaves the court after their trial on July. 30, 2018 and Yangon, Myanmar. AP

YANGON, Myanmar — One of the two Reuters journalists charged with possessing official information has testified that he knew nothing about documents that police allegedly found on his phone and had no idea where they came from.

Kyaw Soe Oo and colleague Wa Lone have pleaded innocent to violating Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act, under which they could get up to 14 years in prison if convicted.

The two say they were framed by police, apparently because of their reporting on the brutal crackdown by security forces on minority Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

Their lawyer, Than Zaw Aung, told reporters after Monday’s court session that documents presented as prosecution evidence were neither secret nor sensitive, and that Kyaw Soe Oo’s phone was not in his possession during two weeks of interrogation.