By Sam Tobin
LONDON, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Myanmar’s former ambassador to the United Kingdom stood trial in a London court on Wednesday, charged with trespassing at a diplomatic residence that he refused to leave after being sacked for opposing Myanmar’s military coup five years ago.
Kyaw Zwar Minn was locked out of his embassy a few months after the February 2021 coup and was later replaced by the junta’s representatives, after calling for the release of Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
But Minn has refused to leave the ambassador’s residence in northwest London, where he still lives and was charged last year with trespass between May 2021 and November 2024.
Minn, 68, says the current Myanmar government – led by junta chief turned President Min Aung Hlaing, after an election which critics and Western governments derided as a sham – is illegitimate and had no power to ask him to leave the property.
Prosecutors, however, say his role as ambassador was properly terminated by Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and that he has no defence to the charge.
EX-AMBASSADOR SAYS GOVERNMENT ‘ILLEGITIMATE’
Minn sat in the dock at Westminster Magistrates’ Court as prosecutor Louise Oakley said he had been recalled as ambassador shortly after the 2021 coup and ordered to vacate the ambassador’s residence, known as Myanmar House.
Oakley said the Myanmar authorities instructed Minn to “hand over state-owned properties” by the middle of April 2021, with Britain’s Foreign Office also telling him that he had to leave the residence, but he did not comply.
“Having been granted permission to reside at Myanmar House as the ambassador, his refusal to vacate the diplomatic premises after he was removed from that position means that he is guilty of the offence of diplomatic trespass,” Oakley said.
Minn has pleaded not guilty and his lawyer David Perry told the court that his client’s case was that “the government of Myanmar is illegitimate”.
“The military authorities could not lawfully terminate his licence at the (diplomatic) address … and nor could they legitimately use the property,” he said.
Prosecutors, however, say Minn’s view of the Myanmar government – which is not formally recognised by most democratic nations, including Britain – does not provide a defence.
“We submit that his legal permission and any licence to occupy as the ambassador or head of mission had properly been terminated,” Oakley said.
She added: “This defendant may not recognise the outcome of the coup and the construction of the government in Myanmar – that, we submit, is irrelevant.”
The trial continues.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by David Holmes)
