Myanmar court finds Frontier Magazine Editor ‘Danny Fenster’ guilty of several offences. The offences include incitement, sedition and terrorism.
MYANMAR – On Friday Nov 12, Danny Fenster a US journalist got sentenced to 11 years of prison in military ruled Myanmar. The ruling was passed by a court that holds Fenster guilty on three offences, which includes incitement, sedition and terrorism. US regarding the decision said that it is an ‘Unjust Detention’ of an innocent person.
Fenster was allegedly spreading false information, having contacts with illegal organizations violation of visa regulations. According to lawyer ‘Zaw Aung’, the 37 year old journalist has a maximum sentence for all three charges.
“Everyone at Frontier is disappointed and frustrated at this decision. We just want to see Danny released as soon as possible so he can go home to his family”, said Thomas Kean, The Chief editor at Frontier.
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Fenster’s arrest and Charges
Danny Fenster was first arrested back on May 24th of this year, the arrest took place on the Yangon International Airport. Fenster from the airport was about to come to his home in Detroit, US. Throughout this whole time, Fenster is going to be inside a prison.
A lot of different court hearings proceeded ever since Fenster is arrested. Most of the court proceedings involved blames of employment in a news organization named ‘Myanmar Now’. Fenster, despite quitting Myanmar Now just last year, was allegedly still working for them.
“The court disregarded a significant amount of evidence of his employment at Frontier. This includes tax and social security records and testimony from a Frontier employee,” said the statement from Frontier Myanmar.
“There is absolutely no basis to convict Danny of these charges. His legal team clearly demonstrated to the court that he had resigned from Myanmar Now and was working for Frontier from the middle of last year”, added the employee.
While the sentence Fenster got is only for three of his five cases. The 37 year old journalist will now fight two more cases in in a different court in Yangon.