UK ex-envoy to Myanmar handed one year jail term
A court controlled by Myanmar’s military council sentenced UK ex-ambassador Vicky Bowman and her Burmese husband Htein Lin to one year in prison on Friday for violating the country’s immigration laws, according to a source familiar with the case.
The ruling comes more than one week after the couple was arrested at their home in Yangon’s Sanchaung Township on August 24 and later taken to the city’s notorious Insein Prison.
Bowman was charged under Article 13(1) of the Immigration Act for violating the terms of her visa. Her husband, renowned artist and former dissident Htein Lin, was found guilty under Article 13(5) of the same law for abetting Bowman’s violation.
The couple appeared at a court inside Insein Prison on Thursday for a hearing.
The charges against Bowman, who served as the UK’s ambassador to Myanmar from 2002 to 2006, stemmed from her failure to correctly register her place of residence in the country.
In a statement released last Thursday, the junta said that although she was officially listed as living in the couple’s Yangon home, she had actually been residing in a house owned by Htein Lin in Kalaw, Shan State, from May 2021 until early last month.
Their arrests came amid growing diplomatic tensions between the UK government and the military regime that seized power in the February 2021 coup.
Hours before their arrests on Wednesday, the UK added three companies to their Myanmar sanctions list: International Gateways Group of Companies, Sky One Construction Company and Sapphire Group of Companies.
The Myanmar military regime expelled the head of the UK embassy, Pete Vowles, from the country in July. Vowles was appointed ambassador one year earlier but he had not presented his required credentials to the military council despite requests to do so by the junta.
The UK downgraded his title to chargé d’affaires in response to the deteriorating situation in Myanmar. The junta refused to accept the appointment and called on the UK government to send a replacement.
Agencies