A Japanese journalist who was detained while documenting an anti-coup demonstration was sentenced to three extra years in prison by Myanmar’s junta on Wednesday for breaking immigration laws, a diplomatic source told AFP.
According to a source with knowledge of the case, the jailing occurred on the same day that a secretive junta court sentenced deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi to an additional six years in prison for corruption, bringing her total time behind bars to 26 years.
Toru Kubota, 26, who was detained in July and jailed for seven years last week, was sentenced to an additional “three years imprisonment”, a diplomatic source at Japan’s embassy said, citing the journalist’s lawyer.
Myanmar’s junta has clamped down on press freedoms, arresting reporters and photographers, as well as revoking broadcasting licences during its crackdown o dissent since seizing power last year.
Kubota, who was detained alongside two other nationals of Myanmar near an anti-government gathering in the bustling city of Yangon, appeared to be in good health at the hearing on Wednesday, the source added, citing his lawyer.
Kubota has previously produced movies about “refugees and ethnic issues in Myanmar” and the Muslim Rohingya minority in Myanmar, according to a profile on FilmFreeway.
Following American citizens Nathan Maung and Danny Fenster, Pole Robert Bociaga, and Japanese journalist Yuki Kitazumi, all of whom were later released and deported, Kubota is the sixth foreign journalist to be held in Myanmar.
Kubota “would not be deported at this time,” junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told AFP before the ruling was made public.
