Arafat Hasan
Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney told a press freedom event at the United Nations on Friday that the of two Reuters reporters imprisoned in Myanmar have asked for a pardon, as she pressed the country’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi to agree.
Clooney is a member of the legal team representing Reuters journalists Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, who were convicted on September 3 under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act and sentenced to seven years in prison.
She said the reporters’ wives wrote “a really heartfelt letter” to the government about a week ago pleading for a pardon, not because their husbands had done anything wrong, but because it would allow them to be released from prison.
Clooney said Myanmar’s President Win Myint would make the decision to issue a pardon in consultation with Suu Kyi.
In a message to Suu Kyi, Clooney told Reuters: “You fought for so many years to be freed from the same prison where they now sit and now you have the power to actually remedy this injustice today if you wanted to.”
The Myanmar mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request by Reuters for comment.
Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay has said the court was independent and followed due process in the case.
-Source: Reuters