<div style="text-align: justify; "><b><span style="font-size: 1rem;">A court in military-ruled Myanmar has jailed a Japanese documentary filmmaker for 10 years for for encouraging dissent against the military and breaking communications laws.</span><br></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Toru Kubota was arrested in July along with two Myanmar citizens after taking photos and video at an anti-coup protest in Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 26-year-old was sentenced on Wednesday to three years in prison for “incitement” and seven years for violating a law on telecommunications, a Japanese foreign ministry official said, citing the filmmaker’s lawyer. The jail terms will be served concurrently.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A court hearing on an immigration charge is scheduled for October 12, the official said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“We have been asking Myanmar authorities for Mr Kubota’s early release, and we intend to keep on doing so,” the ministry official said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Myanmar was plunged into crisis in February 2021 when the military, under Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, detained leading members of the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and seized power. The coup prompted a wave of protests with some civilians now joining armed groups to fight against the military.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Japan is one of the country’s leading donors and has longstanding relations with the armed forces.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It announced last month, however, that it would end a training programme for the Myanmar military after the execution of four anti-coup activists in July.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some 2,336 people have been killed by the military since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners which has been tracking the crackdown, and more than 12,500 people are in detention. Charges of incitement and dissent have been widely used in the military’s crackdown on opponents.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to a profile on FilmFreeway, Kubota has previously made documentaries on Myanmar’s mostly Muslim Rohingya minority and “refugees and ethnic issues in Myanmar”.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He is the fifth foreign journalist to be detained in Myanmar, after Americans Nathan Maung and Danny Fenster, Robert Bociaga of Poland and Yuki Kitazumi of Japan, all of whom were eventually freed and deported.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fenster, who was held in May last year as he attempted to leave the country, faced a closed-door trial inside Yangon’s Insein prison where he also faced charges of “incitement”, as well as unlawful association and breaching visa rules. Source: Aljazeera</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>