Former British envoy Vicky Bowman released from Myanmar prison

Vicky Bowman, a former British ambassador to Myanmar who was imprisoned for allegedly violating immigration laws, has since been set free.

To commemorate the nation’s National Victory Day, Ms. Bowman and her husband, Burmese artist Htein Lin, were among a number of prisoners who were “amnestied” and released.

The two violated the nation’s Immigration Act and were given a year in prison in September for “failure to register as living at a different address.”

Ms. Bowman has more than three decades of experience in Myanmar and served as the British ambassador there from 2002 to 2006.

She was in charge of a group that supports ethical business practices in Myanmar at the time of their incarceration.

The foreigners’ detention had caused a rift between Myanmar’s leaders and their respective home governments, which had pushed for their release.

Since the army overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically elected administration in February of last year, 16,232 people have been held in Myanmar on political accusations, according to the rights monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

According to the AAPP, 13,015 of those detained were still there as of Wednesday, while security personnel have murdered at least 2,465 people within the same time period.

Australian economist and Japanese filmmaker have launched

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The Voice of Myanmar and Yangon Media Group were informed by the government’s spokesperson, Major General Zaw Min Tun, that an unidentified American, economist Sean Turnell from Australia, and Japanese filmmaker Toru Kubota had also been released and deported.

Security personnel detained Mr. Turnell, 58, an assistant professor of economics at Macquarie University in Sydney, at a hotel in Yangon.

For breaking both the immigration law and the country’s official secrets law, he was given a three-year prison sentence in September.

According to O’Connor of Amnesty International Australia, Mr. Turnell is one of many

He said that the thousands of individuals detained in Myanmar since the coup had committed no crimes.

A 26-year-old documentary filmmaker from Tokyo named Mr. Kubota was detained by plain clothes police in Yangon in July after documenting a brief flash rally against the military coup last year.

He received a 10-year prison term after being found guilty last month of inciting for taking part in the rally.

The country’s deposed leader of Myanmar is still imprisoned there after being given a three-year prison sentence on the same day as Ms. Bowman, which will be added to the 17 years she has already served for a variety of offenses, including alleged election fraud.

Ms. Suu Kyi’s party easily won the country’s general election in 2020, but on 1 February 2021, the military overthrew the elected government, citing extensive ballot fraud as its justification.

source:nsemwokrom.com