A government spokesman on Wednesday moved quickly to refute a state media report that seven soldiers who were convicted for involvement in a high-profile massacre of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State were released a day earlier as part of a mass amnesty marking the Burmese New Year.

Seven Burmese soldiers have been sentenced to “10 years in prison with hard labour in a remote area” for participating in a massacre of 10 Rohingya Muslim men in a village in northwestern Rakhine State last September, the army said on Tuesday.

The legal troubles for a former child soldier already convicted of public incitement continued to unfold at a Yangon court on Tuesday and also appear to have ensnared three others, with all four accused of having desecrated the Union seal.

More than 150 civil society organisations have released a statement condemning Burma’s judiciary for handing down a two-year prison sentence to former child soldier Aung Ko Htwe.

A Yangon court on Wednesday sentenced the former child soldier Aung Ko Htwe to two years’ imprisonment with hard labour under section 505(b) of Burma’s Penal Code, a provision broadly covering public incitement.

Court proceedings were interrupted by defendant Aung Ko Htwe shouting that he refused to accept “a cow judge” and that he does not recognise the judicial system.