Yangon: A Myanmar police chief ordered officers to "trap" a Reuters reporter arrested in December, telling them to meet the journalist at a restaurant and give him "secret documents", prosecution witness Police Captain Moe Yan Naing told a court on Friday.

Moe Yan Naing gave details to the court of the hours leading up to the December 12 arrest of Wa Lone, 32, and Reuters colleague Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, who had accompanied him to the meeting, and said the police had arranged a "set up".

The court in Yangon has been holding hearings since January to decide whether the pair will be charged under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.

They had been working on a Reuters investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys in a village in western Myanmar's Rakhine state, during an army crackdown that UN agencies say has sent nearly 700,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh.

Seven soldiers have been sentenced to "10 years in prison with hard labour in a remote area" for participating in the massacre, the army said this month.

Reuters was unable to obtain a comment from lead prosecutor Kyaw Min Aung as the proceedings were ongoing. Myanmar police spokesman Col Myo Thu Soe could not be reached for comment.

Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay was not immediately reachable for comment. He has previously told Reuters that under Myanmar's constitution the courts were independent and has declined to comment on the case, citing the ongoing proceedings. The reporters have told relatives they were arrested almost immediately after being handed some rolled up papers at a restaurant. Reuters