Japanese filmmaker whose arrest caused outcry backs calls for release of Suu Kyi

A Japanese filmmaker sentenced to 10 years in jail in Myanmar has backed calls for Aung San Suu Kyi to be freed.

- KATE DEVLIN

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.”

His intervention comes after three former foreign secretaries called for Ms Suu Kyi to be freed by the brutal military junta that 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.