The former UK ambassador to Myanmar and her husband have each been sentenced to one year in prison by the country’s military authorities. Vicky Bowman and Htein Lin, a former political prisoner, were charged with violating immigration laws.
The couple was arrested last week at their home in Yangon.
The case is likely about broader political concerns than immigration offences, for which foreigners are rarely prosecuted in Myanmar.
Ms Bowman, the fluent Burmese, is a well-known member of Myanmar’s small international community. She served as ambassador to Myanmar from 2002 to 2006 and now heads the Yangon-based Myanmar Center for Responsible Business.
She and her husband were detained when they returned to Yangon from their home in Shan State. Military authorities charged them with failing to register her as living at a different address.
Her husband is a prominent artist and former political prisoner. He was a member of the All Burma Student’s Democratic Front, an armed resistance group formed after the popular student-led uprisings against the military junta in 1988.
The couple married and moved to London before returning to Yangon in 2013.
The pair’s arrest came as the UK recently announced sanctions against the military authorities in Myanmar – coinciding with the fifth anniversary of its deadly crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in the country. The onslaught in 2017 left over 6,000 people dead and displaced hundreds of thousands in just the first few months, most fleeing across the border into Bangladesh.
Earlier Friday, a military-run court in Myanmar also sentenced former leader Aung San Suu Kyi to three years in jail on election fraud charges.
Myanmar’s military regime has been accused of widespread violations of human rights.
In August, generals extended their emergency rule until 2023, with the country riven by internal fighting. The junta seized power last year after overthrowing Aung Sung Suu Kyi’s democratically-elected government.
After last year’s coup, Vicky Bowman chose to stay in Myanmar and appears to have been careful to avoid any public comment which might provoke the military government.
Her conviction is widely assumed to be driven by something other than immigration offences, either retaliation for Britain’s tough stand against the military government or perhaps something sensitive she uncovered during her work.