緬甸法院即將決定在押路透社記者的命運

A court in Myanmar will rule next week whether two journalists for the Reuters news agency will face trial for allegedly breaking the country's secrecy laws by reporting on the Rohingya crisis.

Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, are accused of breaching the Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.

The pair has been held in custody since their arrest in December and are accused of being in possession of leaked sensitive material linked to a military crackdown in crisis-hit Rakhine state, home to Myanmar's minority Muslim Rohingya population.

Their detention has prompted an outcry among international human rights groups.

Defense lawyers asked the judge at a pretrial hearing Monday to drop the charges, saying the prosecution had failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove their case.

The reporters were meeting with two police officers they say they had never met before in northern Yangon. The men later told relatives that as soon as they were handed some papers, they were arrested almost immediately.

Human Rights Watch again called for the release of the journalists.

Reuters President and Editor-in-Chief Stephen Adler said this was a "critical juncture" in the case.

"Freedom of the press is essential in any democracy, and to charge Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo under these circumstances, without any proof of their having done anything unlawful, would seriously undermine Myanmar's constitutional guarantee of free speech," Adler said in a statement.緬甸一家法院下星期將裁決爲路透社工作的兩位新聞記者是否將面臨審判。這兩名記者報道了羅興亞人的危機，被指違反了緬甸的保密法。

32歲的瓦龍(Wa Lone)和28歲的覺梭(Kyaw Soe Oo)被指違反緬甸的“官方保密法”，最多可被判處14年徒刑。

這兩人去年12月被逮捕以來一直在押。他們被指控持有與若開邦危機中一次軍事鎮壓有關的被泄露的祕密材料。在緬甸人口占少數的羅興亞穆斯林居住在若開邦。

瓦龍和覺梭的被捕引發國際人權組織的猛烈批評。

被告律師團在星期一的預審庭議上要求法官取消指控，因爲檢控方未能提供證明他們違法的足夠證據。

這兩名記者在仰光北部與兩名他們說以前從未謀面的警察會面。他們後來對親屬說，他們剛拿到一些文件就被立即逮捕。

人權觀察再次呼籲釋放這兩名記者。

路透社總裁兼總編阿德勒說，這個案件現在處於一個“至關重要的十字路口”。

阿德勒在一份聲明中說：“在任何民主體制中，新聞自由都不可或缺。如果沒有證明有違法行爲的證據就起訴瓦龍和覺梭，就會嚴重破壞緬甸憲法對新聞自由的保護。”