Former UK ambassador to Burma sentenced to one year in jail

Sep. 2 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The former British ambassador to Burma Vicky Bowman and her husband have been sentenced this Friday to one year in prison each by the Burmese authorities for violating migration laws after being arrested last week in the city of Rangoon, on the banks of the Yangon River, as reported by the BBC.

Bowman, who heads the city-based Center for Responsible Business Burma (MCRB), and who served as British ambassador to the Southeast Asian country for four years, was arrested on alleged migration-related charges.

The former British ambassador to Burma was arrested along with her husband, Htein Lin, a Burmese artist and former political prisoner. Htein was a former member of the All Burma Students Democratic Front, which was formed after popular student-led uprisings against the military junta in 1988.

The arrest of Bowman and her husband came shortly after British authorities announced new sanctions against actors operating on behalf of the Burma Armed Forces on the fifth anniversary of the military’s campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya community.