An editor says a Myanmar military court has sentenced a local journalist to life in prison

BANGKOK (AP) — A military court in Myanmar has given a life prison sentence to a local journalist and sentenced one of his colleagues to 20 years after convicting them under a counterterrorism law, their editor said Wednesday.

The sentences for Myo Myint Oo and Aung San Oo of the independent online news service Dawei Watch appear to be the most severe dealt to any journalist since the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. The takeover triggered armed resistance and an ongoing civil war.

Myanmar is one of the world’s biggest jailers of journalists, second only to China, according to the Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders, which ranks it near the bottom of its Press Freedom Index at 171st of 180 countries.

Last week, two freelance journalists in Myanmar were killed, one allegedly after being captured, when security forces raided the home of one of them in the southern state of Mon. Several local resistance fighters were also killed.

Dawei Watch’s Myo Myint Oo, 41, and Aung San Oo, 49, were arrested separately last December at their homes in the coastal town of Myeik, about 560 kilometers (350 miles) south of Yangon, three days after returning from hiding.

The military government hasn’t commented on their cases.

Kyaw San Min, the chief editor of Dawei Watch media, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Aung San Oo was initially sentenced to 20 years in prison by a military court in Myeik prison in February and Myo Myint Oo was handed a life sentence by the same court in May, but he was unable to learn further details.

He said both men were convicted under Myanmar’s Counterterrorism Law, but the circumstances were not clear. The law punishes acts of