Myanmar: Myanmar authorities have detained the former UK ambassador to the Southeast Asian country where a military junta seized power last year, three people with knowledge of the situation said on Thursday.

Sources, who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the case, said Vicky Boman, the current director of the Myanmar Center for Responsible Business (MCRB), and her husband, Hattin Lin, are a Burmese artist and former political prisoner. Both were taken into custody on Wednesday.

According to a source with knowledge of the situation, she and her husband are facing immigration charges. The maximum punishment for each charge is five years in prison.

He was remanded into custody and was being taken to the infamous Insen Prison, which is located outside the country's commercial capital, Yangon.

Calls to the Myanmar Junta's press office for comment remained unanswered.

Myanmar has been in political and economic crisis since the military overthrew an elected government in early 2021. The military is battling armed resistance across the country, and thousands of dissidents have been arrested or detained.

A spokesman for the British Embassy in Yangon said: "We are concerned about the arrest of a British woman in Myanmar. We are in talks with the local government and are offering consular support. The spokesperson dropped the person's name.

Boman has over three decades of experience in Myanmar and served as ambassador there from 2002 to 2006. Heitin Lin was detained and jailed in 1998 for allegedly criticizing the junta's regime.

When he was released in 2004, a series of paintings by him using smuggled supplies caught the attention of then Ambassador Bowman.

They got married in 2006 when he persuaded her to take up the painting for his own safety.
Relations between Britain and Myanmar have deteriorated since the coup in 2021.

The junta earlier this year called the recent downgrading of Britain's mission to the nation "unacceptable".

Following an attempt by the military to seize power last year, the UK government has sanctioned a number of entities and those associated with the military.

On Thursday, the UK announced new sanctions against companies it claimed helped boost military funding during a 2017 crackdown on the Rohingya minority, who are mainly Muslims.
Many foreign nationals have been affected by the purification of the junta after the coup.

Japanese filmmaker Toru Kubota is currently being held in Insen Prison, following his arrest at the close of an anti-government rally in Yangon last month.

He follows American citizens Nathan Maung and Danny Fenster, Polish journalist Robert Bosiaga and Japanese journalist Yuki Kitazumi, all of whom are later released and deported as the fifth foreign journalist to be held in Myanmar.

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