YANGON: A Myanmar court ruled Wednesday that crucial testimony from a whistleblowing policeman in the case against two Reuters journalists is credible, a decision seen as a “ray of light” by the defense.
Reporters Wa Lone, 32 and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, have been in custody since December.
They are accused of violating the country’s Official Secrets Act for possessing material linked to security operations in conflict-hit Rakhine state.
The charge carries up to 14 years in prison.
Over months of pre-trial hearings, their defense team has insisted they were set up — lured to dinner by a police source who handed them documents for which they were subsequently arrested.
Court testimony last month by Deputy Police Major Moe Yan Naing backed up that version of events, even though he had been called as a prosecution witness.
He said a superior ordered his men to set up the sting which resulted in sensitive documents being passed to the reporters.
In response prosecutors asked the court to declare Moe Yan Naing a hostile witness.
But the court found no problems with the police officer’s account.
“The court rejects the proposal claiming the law officer to be a hostile witness,” Judge Ye Lwin told the hearing Wednesday.
A lawyer for the journalists welcomed the decision.
“I am elated. The court has proved itself as a court of justice,” Khin Maung Zaw said. “We have seen a ray of light. It strengthens our case.”
The two journalists were also buoyed by the court ruling.
“We are happy about today’s decision. This shows that the truth will come out and proves that we have been treated unfairly,” Wa Lone told reporters before they were taken back to prison.
On April 30 the police officer was jailed for breaching a police disciplinary act, a charge he had faced since December for previous communications with Wa Lone.
Police sources said he was sentenced before he gave his shock testimony to court — an extremely rare instance of a security official openly challenging superiors in the formerly junta-run country.
In addition, the family of Moe Yan Naing was evicted from their police housing a day after he gave evidence. Police denied the two events were connected.
At the time of their arrest, the reporters were investigating the extrajudicial killing of 10 Rohingya men in the village of Inn Din in the north of Rakhine state.
The military has denied allegations of widespread atrocities against the Muslim minority.
But it did concede that security officers took part in the killings at Inn Din which were later reported by Reuters.
Some 700,000 Rohingya have fled to neighboring Bangladesh since the army-led campaign was launched last August, ostensibly to combat Rohingya insurgents.
The stateless group has faced decades of systematic discrimination and persecution in mainly Buddhist Myanmar.
Myanmar judge says policeman’s ‘entrapment’ testimony stands
Myanmar judge says policeman’s ‘entrapment’ testimony stands
- Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been in custody since December
- At the time of their arrest, the reporters were investigating the extrajudicial killing of 10 Rohingya men in the village of Inn Din
EU warns Meta it must open up WhatsApp to rival AI chatbots
- The EU executive on Monday told Meta to give rival chatbots access to WhatsApp after an antitrust probe found the US giant to be in breach of the bloc’s competition rules
BRUSSELS: The EU executive on Monday told Meta to give rival chatbots access to WhatsApp after an antitrust probe found the US giant to be in breach of the bloc’s competition rules.
The European Commission said a change in Meta’s terms had “effectively” barred third-party artificial intelligence assistants from connecting to customers via the messaging platform since January.
Competition chief Teresa Ribera said the EU was “considering quickly imposing interim measures on Meta, to preserve access for competitors to WhatsApp while the investigation is ongoing, and avoid Meta’s new policy irreparably harming competition in Europe.”
The EU executive, which is in charge of competition policy, sent Meta a warning known as a “statement of objections,” a formal step in antitrust probes.
Meta now has a chance to reply and defend itself. Monday’s step does not prejudge the outcome of the probe, the commission said.
The tech giant rejected the commission’s preliminary findings.
“The facts are that there is no reason for the EU to intervene,” a Meta spokesperson said.
“There are many AI options and people can use them from app stores, operating systems, devices, websites, and industry partnerships. The commission’s logic incorrectly assumes the WhatsApp Business API is a key distribution channel for these chatbots,” the spokesperson said.
Opened in December, the EU probe marks the latest attempt by the 27-nation bloc to rein in Big Tech, many of whom are based in the United States, in the face of strong pushback by the government of US President Donald Trump.
- Meta in the firing line -
The investigation covers the European Economic Area (EEA), made up of the bloc’s 27 states, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway — with the exception of Italy, which opened a separate investigation into Meta in July.
The commission said that Meta is “likely to be dominant” in the EEA for consumer messaging apps, notably through WhatsApp, and accused Meta of “abusing this dominant position by refusing access” to competitors.
“We cannot allow dominant tech companies to illegally leverage their dominance to give themselves an unfair advantage,” Ribera said in a statement.
There is no legal deadline for concluding an antitrust probe.
Meta is already under investigation under different laws in the European Union.
EU regulators are also investigating its platforms Facebook and Instagram over fears they are not doing enough to tackle the risk of social media addiction for children.
The company also appealed a 200-million-euro fine imposed last year by the commission under the online competition law, the Digital Markets Act.
That case focused on its policy asking users to choose between an ad-free subscription and a free, ad-supported service, and Brussels and Meta remain in discussions over finding an alternative that would address the EU’s concerns.
