Yangon, Dec 10 (IANS): A Myanmar court will hear later this month the appeal of two Reuters reporters jailed on charges of violating a colonial-era Act while investigating the killing of Rohingyas in the country, one of their lawyers said on Monday.

Lawyer Than Zaw Aung, who is part of the legal team representing journalists Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, told Efe news that the appeal hearing will begin on December 24.

The journalists were arrested on the night of December 12, 2017, in possession of documents which they say had just been handed to them by two police officers.

The reporters were investigating a massacre of Muslim minority Rohingya in Inn Dinn village of Rakhine state, for which seven Myanmar soldiers were later sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labour.

Authorities charged the reporters under the Official Secrets Act for obtaining confidential documents about the military operation in Rakhine, which the Army had launched after a series of attacks by an insurgent Rohingya group on border posts on August 25, 2017.

On September 3, a court in Yangon declared the journalists guilty and sentenced them to seven years each in prison.

Around 725,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh following the violent military offensive in which UN investigators found elements of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.