On 14th October, Myanmar’s Supreme Court of the Union agreed to hear the case of the ‘Unity five’, lawyer U Robert Sann Aung told Mizzima.
The four journalists, along with the chief executive of Unity Journal, had their sentence reduced on appeal from 10 years with hard labour to seven years imprisonment at the Magway Region High Court on 2nd October.
U Robert Sann Aung, who represents, the journalists said they have to wait for about 45 days for a court appointment.
A court at Pakkoku in Magway Region passed sentence against the Unity five; Ko Sithu Soe, Ko Lu Maw Naing, Ko Yazar Oo, Ko Thet Paing Kyaw and chief executive U Tin Hsan on 10th July.
They were convicted of breaching Myanmar’s 1923 colonial-era Official Secrets Act, trespassing in a restricted area and taking photos of a Defence Ministry facility without permission.
The charges arose from a report carried by Unity on January 25 that a military facility in Magway Region's Pauk Township was making chemical weapons, a claim denied by the government.
On 9th May, the James Martin Center for Non-proliferation Studies of California in the United States of America announced that the weapons factory in Pauk Township, Magway, had design features “consistent with a chemical plant”.
