Japanese filmmaker whose arrest caused international outcry backs calls for Aung San Suu Kyi’s release
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Toru Kubota backed calls from three former foreign secretaries William Hague, Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Jack Straw for Aung San Suu Kyi’s release from Myanmar’s brutal dictatorship. A Japanese filmmaker sentenced to 10 years in jail in Myanmar has backed calls for Aung San Suu Kyi to be freed.
![[Toru Kubota, a Japanese journalist, was jailed for more than three months in Myanmar]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2022/11/28/08/Japan_Myanmar_Jailed_Journalist_91354.jpg)
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.
![[Protests in Myanmar]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2022/08/01/03/Myanmar_Japan_Arrested_Filmmaker_36217.jpg)
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.
