MYANMAR (WWJ) -- Metro Detroit journalist Danny Fenster has been sentenced to 11 years in prison after military-ruled Myanmar found him guilty on a range of charges the U.S. government has previously described as “profoundly unjust.”
The charges include incitement for allegedly spreading false or inflammatory information, contacting illegal organizations and violating visa regulations, said Fenster’s lawyer.
The 37-year-old Huntington Woods journalist, who had been managing editor of Frontier Myanmar, an online magazine, still faces two additional charges in a different court on Nov. 16 for allegedly violating the counter-terrorism law and a statute covering treason and sedition.
If convicted on those charges, he could spend the rest of his life in a Myanmar prison, said WWJ’s Charlie Langton.
Myanmar’s military has cracked down on the press ever since taking power in a Feb. 2021 coup. They took Fenster into custody as he boarded a plane to return to Detroit to visit family in May. He has been detained ever since.
He is the only foreign journalist to be convicted of a serious crime since the army seized power in February.
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