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A Japanese filmmaker sentenced to 10 years in jail in Myanmar has backed calls for Aung San Suu Kyi to be freed.
Toru Kubota, who was arrested while covering a protest in Yangon and whose case led to international outcry, told The Independent: “I sincerely hope for her earliest release, along with the release of more than 20,000 detainees.”
It comes after three former foreign secretaries called for Ms Suu Kyi to be freed by the brutal military junta which runs the country.
William Hague, Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Jack Straw argue the ousted leader was jailed on trumped-up charges by the dictatorship and deserves the chance to lead her country democratically.
Ms Suu Kyi, who faces 27 years in prison, is believed to have spent long periods in solitary confinement since her arrest by the military in February 2021.
The 79-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner is a divisive and controversial figure internationally after refusing to speak out on her country’s extreme violence against its Rohingya Muslim minority.
Her fall from grace is explored in an Independent TV documentary, Cancelled: The rise and fall of Aung San Suu Kyi, which looks at her life and the plight of Myanmar.
Mr Kubota, who studied in London, said: “As someone who began connecting with Myanmar through the eyes of the Rohingya, there’s an unsettling feeling when I see how people continue to idolize her even after the coup.
“But of course, I hold immense respect for her achievements and determination. I sincerely hope for her earliest release, along with the release of more than 20,000 detainees.”
He was arrested while covering a protest in military-ruled Myanmar in July 2022.
He was charged with spreading fake news by violating a law against spreading false or alarming news, and with breaking visa regulations amid allegations he arrived in Yangon, the largest city in Myanmar, from Thailand with a tourist visa.
He was sentenced to a total of 10 years, but in the end was released after three months following international protests.
He has made several films on Myanmar, including a documentary on persecuted minority Rohingya refugees who have fled the country, as well as done work for Yahoo! news Japan, Vice Japan and Al Jazeera English. The Committee to Protect Journalists hit out at Mr Kubota’s arrest warning the junta was trying to crack down on journalism.
After his release, he talked of how he had been among 20 people placed in what he described as a “hellish” cell so tiny they had to sleep on top of each other.
Later, he was transferred to the infamous Insein prison in Yangon, which has housed political prisoners.
In the Independent TV documentary, Lord Hague, who welcomed Ms Suu Kyi to London in 2012, said it was possible to be critical of the country’s former de facto prime minister “but also say we should be campaigning for her release”.
He said: “She is a political prisoner on trumped-up charges, imprisoned by a military regime in what seems very harsh circumstances.
“And we might disagree with things that she has said and done, she has been the strongest force for democracy in Myanmar in a generation, and she is imprisoned because she was that force for democracy.”
On 2 January Myanmar’s military government released more than 6,000 prisoners as part of a mass amnesty marking the 77th anniversary of independence from Britain.
But included was just a small proportion of hundreds of political detainees jailed for opposing army rule since the military seized power in February 2021. Ms Suu Kyi was not among them.
This post was originally published on here
