BBC Online :
A Myanmar military court has sentenced US journalist Danny Fenster to 11 years in jail.
Fenster was found guilty of breaching immigration law, unlawful association and encouraging dissent against the military.
He was earlier this week slapped with two additional charges of sedition and terrorism, which carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
His trial on the new charges will begin on 16 November.
Fenster, 37, who was the managing editor of online site Frontier Myanmar, was detained at Yangon international airport in May. He is one of dozens of local journalists that have been detained since a military coup in February.
According to Frontier, Fenster had earlier worked for Myanmar Now, an independent news site that has been critical of the military since the coup.
“The charges were all based on the allegation that he was working for banned media outlet Myanmar Now. Danny had resigned from Myanmar Now in July 2020 and joined Frontier the following month, so at the time of his arrest in May 2021 he had been working with Frontier for more than nine months,” said the news site.
“There is absolutely no basis to convict Danny of these charges.”
His sentencing on Friday comes months after a Japanese freelance journalist was arrested in Myanmar and charged with spreading fake news.
Yuki Kitazumi, who was reporting for many of Japan’s major news outlets, was one of a few foreign reporters in the country. Myanmar authorities maintain he violated the law but released him because Japan had requested it.
