September 2nd 2022
Vicky Bowman: UK former ambassador jailed in Myanmar
by bbc news
The UK's former 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 breaching immigration laws.
The couple were arrested last week in their home in Yangon.
The case is likely to be about wider political concerns than immigration offences, for which foreigners are rarely prosecuted in Myanmar.
Ms Bowman, a fluent Burmese speaker, is a well-known member of Myanmar's small international community.
She first served in what was then called Burma in 1990 as a junior diplomat and returned as ambassador from 2002-2006. She now runs the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business (MCRB), based in Yangon, which said it was "shocked" by the sentences.
In its statement, it added that Ms Bowman had "dedicated many years of her life to strengthening social and economic development in Myanmar".
"We hope it will be possible for her to be reunited with her family in the UK soon," it said.
Ms Bowman and her husband were detained when they returned to the city from a home they have in Shan State. Military authorities charged them both with failing to register her as living at a different address.
Htein Lin is a prominent artist and former political prisoner who was a member of the All Burma Student's Democratic Front, an armed resistance group which was formed after the popular student-led uprisings against the military junta in 1988.
