Freed Japanese filmmaker says Myanmar junta used him for propaganda

Nov 29, 2022 | News On Japan

TOKYO - Japanese filmmaker Toru Kubota said on Monday that the Myanmar military government used him for propaganda as they made him pose with an anti-junta banner and used the photos as evidence to jail him on sedition charges.

“I have no doubt that I was used as a propaganda tool,” Kubota said during his first press conference after the junta freed him on Nov.17.

He spent nearly four months in prison and was one of the prisoners released after an amnesty from the military junta.

Just over a week after returning to Japan, he shared his experience in the military-ruled country, hoping that “the situation of those people whose lives are at stake in Myanmar … get a little better.”

Kubota was arrested in July while filming pro-democracy protests in Yangon.

A junta-run court sentenced him to 10 years in prison for inciting dissent and violating telecom and immigration laws. ...continue reading

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