The judge in the case of two Reuters journalists on trial for handling state secrets has rejected a prosecution request to declare a police whistleblower a hostile witness, giving the defense hope that his testimony the reporters were entrapped will lead to their acquittal.

Police Capt. Moe Yan Naing had refuted previous testimony by declaring as a prosecution witness last month that his superior arranged for two policemen to meet reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo and give them documents described as "important secret papers" in order to arrest them for violating the law. The reporters were covering a brutal counterinsurgency operation in Myanmar's Rakhine state that drove 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighboring Bangladesh.

The court said Wednesday that Moe Yan Naing will testify again next week.