The two reporters had pleaded not guilty and told the court that police had planted documents on them in the course of their work in reporting on Myanmar’s violence-plagued Rakhine State.

Press freedom advocates, the United Nations, the European Union and countries, including the United States, Canada and Australia, had called for the journalists’ acquittal.

“Today is a sad day for Myanmar, Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, and the press everywhere,” Reuters editor in chief Stephen J. Adler said in a statement.

“We will not wait while Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo suffer this injustice and will evaluate how to proceed in the coming days, including whether to seek relief in an international forum,” Adler said.

The reporters had told the court that two police officials handed them papers at a restaurant in the city of Yangon moments before other officers arrested them.

One police witness testified that the restaurant meeting was a set-up to entrap the journalists to block or punish them for their reporting of a mass killing of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine.

At least 50 people were packed into the small court Monday, with many standing outside. Judge Ye Lwin read out a summary of witness testimony for about an hour before delivering his verdict.

He said it had been found that “confidential documents” found on the two would have been useful “to enemies of the state and terrorist organizations.” Documents in their possession and on their phones were “not public information”.