(ORDO NEWS) — Japanese documentary filmmaker Toru Kubota has been sentenced to 10 years in prison in Myanmar on charges of sedition and violating the electronic communications law. The filmmaker was detained in July while filming anti-government protests.
Japanese documentary filmmaker Toru Kubota, who was detained in July in Myanmar, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. This is reported by The Japan Times, citing representatives of the country’s military department.
Toru Kubota, 26, was detained at the end of July this year in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, while filming protests against the government that came to power in a February 2021 coup.
According to The Japan Times, the court sentenced the documentary maker to seven years in prison for sedition and three years in prison for violating the country’s electronic communications law. Initially, Reuters notes, it was reported that he was charged with violating immigration laws and encouraging dissent.
“We have applied to the Myanmar authorities for the early release of Mr. Kubota and intend to continue to do so,” a spokesman for the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Reuters.
Since the military overthrew the government of Myanmar in February last year, several thousand citizens and foreigners, including politicians, officials, students, journalists and photographers, have been arrested and licenses revoked from several media outlets in an attempt to “crush dissent.”
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