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Wa
Lone, 33, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 29, have spent more than 16 months in
detention since they were arrested in December 2017 while
working on an investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya
Muslim men during a military crackdown in the western part of
the country.
The Supreme Court, the highest court in Myanmar, listed the
journalists' case on its website and Facebook page on Saturday.
The government has said they had been found in possession of
secret documents that could have harmed national security.
Outlining their grounds of appeal in March, the reporters'
lawyer, Khin Maung Zaw, cited lack of proof of a crime and
evidence that the pair were set up by police. A policeman told a
lower court last year that officers had planted secret documents
on the two reporters.
A district court judge in Yangon found the two journalists
guilty under the Official Secrets Act last September and
sentenced them to seven years in prison. The Yangon High Court
rejected an earlier appeal in January.
Both men are separated from young families. Wa Lone's wife,
Panei Mon, gave birth to their first child last year.
The reporters' imprisonment has sparked an outcry from press
freedom advocates, Western diplomats, and world leaders, adding
to pressure on Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel
laureate who took power in 2016 amid a transition to military
rule.
The investigation that the journalists were working on was
completed by colleagues and published in 2018. Last week it was
awarded the Pulitzer prize for international reporting.
(Reporting by Thu Thu Aung; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
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