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A former British ambassador to Myanmar and her husband was sentenced to a year in prison on Friday for violating immigration laws, a diplomatic source told AFP. According to a source with knowledge of the case, Vicky Bowman and her husband, well-known Burmese artist Htein Lin, received one-year sentences apiece. Ms. Bowman, who held the position of an envoy from 2002 to 2006, was taken into custody last month for failing to disclose that she was residing at a different residence than that which was given on her foreigner’s registration certificate.
Htein Lin was detained for assisting his wife in living at a place other than their legal residence in Yangon’s bustling business district.
The couple faced a maximum five-year prison sentence.
The British foreign ministry has been approached by AFP for comment.
Requests for comment from a junta spokeswoman were not met.
Ms. Bowman worked as the second counselor at the British embassy from 1990 to 1993 before being appointed ambassador.
She is a native speaker of Burmese and currently serves as director of the Myanmar Centre for Sensible Business.
Htein Lin was detained and put in jail in 1998 as a result of his opposition to the previous junta’s control.
damaged ties
Since a coup last year, relations between Myanmar and the erstwhile colonial power Britain have deteriorated, with London placing multiple rounds of sanctions on organisations and people with ties to the military.
The junta called the recent reduction of Britain’s mission in the nation “unacceptable” earlier this year.
Following the army’s grab for power last year, which led to widespread uprisings and a brutal crackdown on dissent, the British government has sanctioned a number of military-related businesses and persons.
The day before London issued new penalties on companies it claimed had assisted in raising money for the military during its 2017 crackdown on the predominantly Muslim Rohingya minority, Ms. Bowman and her husband were detained.
Numerous foreign nationals have been victimised by the junta’s crackdown after gaining power.
Following his arrest last month in close proximity to an anti-government gathering in Yangon, Japanese filmmaker Toru Kubota is currently being incarcerated in Insein prison.
In addition to US nationals Nathan Maung and Danny Fenster, Pole Robert Bociaga, and Japanese journalist Yuki Kitazumi, all of whom were eventually released and deported, he was the fifth foreign journalist to be imprisoned in Myanmar.
Numerous foreign citizens have been victimised by the junta’s crackdown after gaining power.
