A court in military-ruled Myanmar on Friday jailed American journalist Danny Fenster for 11 years, his lawyer and his employer said, dealing a blow to US efforts to secure his release.
Fenster, 37, the managing editor of online magazine Frontier Myanmar, was found guilty of incitement and violations of immigration and unlawful associations laws, his magazine said, describing the sentences as "the harshest possible under the law."
He is the first Western journalist to be jailed in recent years in Myanmar, where a Feb. 1 coup by the military against an elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi ended a decade of tentative steps towards democracy and triggered nationwide protests.
"There is absolutely no basis to convict Danny of these charges," said Thomas Kean, editor-in-chief of Frontier Myanmar, one of the country's top independent news outlets.
"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."
Fenster was arrested while trying to leave the country in May and has since been held in Yangon's notorious Insein prison.
He was charged with additional and more serious offenses of sedition and violations of the terrorism act earlier this week, without an explanation by authorities. Those charges are punishable by a maximum 20 years in prison each.
His family has repeatedly called for his release, saying it was "heartbroken" about his detention.
Fenster's trial had not been made public and a spokesman for the junta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fenster is also noted to be of Jewish heritage. However, according to a former Myanmar-based journalist, this is likely plays no role in his arrest and conviction.
Speaking to The Forward back in June, the journalist, who asked to remain anonymous, said it was "pretty much not a thing," and was likely for other reasons, unwarranted they may be.
“There’s simply no telling what those rascals in Naypyidaw will do," he told The Forward. "They’re a paranoid bunch.”
'PLAIN TO SEE'
The American is among dozens of journalists who were detained in Myanmar after protests and strikes erupted following the coup, hampering the military's efforts to consolidate power. Independent media has been accused by the junta of incitement.
More than 1,200 civilians have been killed in protests and thousands detained since the coup, according to activists cited by the United Nations.
The United States has been pushing for Fenster's release. The US embassy in Myanmar did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday's verdict.
The State Department had earlier said his detention was "profoundly unjust" and "plain for the world to see," urging the junta to release him immediately.
Myanmar authorities overlooked Fenster in a recent amnesty for hundreds of people detained over anti-junta protests, which included some journalists.
During nearly half a century of harsh rule by the Tatmadaw, as the military is known, news reporting was tightly controlled by the state but Myanmar's media blossomed after the a quasi-civilian government introduced tentative reforms from 2011.
Since the February coup, however, the military has rescinded media licenses, imposed curbs on the internet and satellite broadcasts and arrested dozens of journalists, in what human rights groups have called an assault on the truth.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a report in July that Myanmar's rulers had effectively criminalized independent journalism.
Frontier Myanmar's publisher, Sonny Swe, who spent eight years in prison during the previous era of military rule, announced Fenster's imprisonment on Twitter under the message: "A lot of things are going so wrong in this country."
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said Fenster's jailing was outrageous and intended to send warning messages to the media and the United States.
"The junta's rationale for this outrageous, rights abusing sentence is first to shock and intimidate all remaining Burmese journalists inside Myanmar by punishing a foreign journalist this way," he said.
"The second message is more strategic, focused on sending a message to the US that the Tatmadaw's generals don't appreciate being hit with economic sanctions and can bite back with hostage diplomacy," he said.