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Toru Kubota is the fifth foreign journalist to be detained in Myanmar after the coup with the others all freed and deported.
A court in military-ruled Myanmar has jailed a Japanese documentary filmmaker for 10 years for encouraging dissent against the military and breaking communications laws.
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.
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.
A court hearing on an immigration charge is scheduled for October 12, the official said.
“We have been asking Myanmar authorities for Mr. Kubota’s early release, and we intend to keep on doing so,” the ministry official said.
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.
Japan is one of the country’s leading donors and has longstanding relations with the armed forces.
It announced last month, however, that it would end a training program for the Myanmar military after the execution of four anti-coup activists in July.
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.
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”.
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.
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.
He was sentenced to 11 years in prison before being pardoned.
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