This file photo taken on September 3, 2018 shows Myanmar journalist Wa Lone (center) speaking to journalists while escorted by police after being sentenced by a court to jail in Yangon.聽 AFP
YANGON, Myanmar聽鈥� Lawyers for two Myanmar Reuters journalists filed an appeal Monday against their seven-year jail sentence linked to their reporting on the Rohingya crisis, the news agency said.
Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were found guilty under a state secrets act in September after exposing the extrajudicial killing of 10 Rohingya men during a brutal military crackdown last year.
The verdict 鈥� following what was widely viewed as a sham trial held to intimidate Myanmar鈥檚 nascent community of journalists鈥� sparked widespread condemnation.
Reuters president and editor-in-chief Stephen J Adler said in a statement the ruling ignored 鈥渃ompelling evidence鈥� that the two reporters had been framed by the authorities.
鈥淲e filed an appeal today on behalf of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo because the trial court鈥檚 ruling was wrong,鈥� he said.
鈥淚n condemning them as spies, it ignored compelling evidence of a police set-up, serious due process violations and the prosecution鈥檚 failure to prove any of the key elements of the crime.鈥�
During the trial, one whistleblowing police officer told the court how a superior had ordered his men to set up a sting to entrap the reporters 鈥� testimony the judge chose to ignore.
Myanmar鈥檚 civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi was widely criticised for refusing to intervene even though her government had the power to drop the charges.
President Win Myint 鈥� a proxy of Suu Kyi 鈥� has the power to pardon the reporters but has so far not commented on the case.
The High Court is likely to take up to five or six months to rule on the appeal, during which time the reporters will remain in prison.
The pair were investigating the massacre of 10 Rohingya men by security forces in Inn Din village in western Rakhine state, an atrocity to which the military later admitted in a rare acknowledgement of wrongdoing.
Myanmar troops, aided by mobs of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, drove out more than 720,000 Rohingya from Rakhine state last year, forcing them into sprawling camps in neighbouring Bangladesh.
The refugees brought with them consistent testimony of widespread murder, rape, torture and arson.
UN investigators say the violence warrants the prosecution of top generals for an 鈥渙ngoing genocide鈥�, war crimes and crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Myanmar insists that the campaign in Rakhine was a proportionate response to Rohingya militant attacks on security forces and vehemently rejects the ICC鈥檚 jurisdiction over the country.
After numerous delays, the first significant group of Rohingya 鈥� some 2,000 strong 鈥� is due to return to Myanmar on November 15 as part of a repatriation deal signed with Bangladesh a year ago.
However, the UN and rights groups maintain that conditions for their 鈥渟afe, dignified and sustainable鈥� return are still not in place. /ee