SEVEN SOLDIERS in the Myanmar army were sentenced to ten years in prison last year. They had been found guilty of killing ten Rohingya males, some of whom were boys.
The soldiers were exposed by two brave Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo – who were themselves set up and imprisoned as a result. The pair were released after being given a presidential pardon earlier this month.
Although Rohingya refugees have spoken of hundreds of brutal and unprovoked attacks being carried out by the Myanmar military, the killings at Inn Din village are the only ones that have led to a prosecution and conviction.
Now Myanmar prison officials have admitted that the seven guilty soldiers are no longer being detained. Reuters have tracked down two of the soldiers, who confirmed that they had been released last November. A further soldier told Reuters that he had been told not to speak about his release.
It seems that the soldiers, who murdered ten innocent civilians, served less than a year in jail. The journalists who exposed them served 16 months in jail for a crime they didn’t commit.
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