9 Feb 2016

A 29-year-old man from Britain has been held in Myanmar’s most notorious jail for 14 months without formally being charged with any crime, he has told the Guardian.

Niranjan Rasalingam, an accountant from Croydon, was arrested in December 2014 alongside three Indian nationals on suspicion of stealing 25.2 million kyats (£13,744) using cloned ATM cards in Yangon.

Speaking exclusively to the Guardian in an interview conducted through his legal team, Rasalingam denied the allegations against him and said he was being kept under inhumane conditions in jail…

A complaint by Myanmar bank Kanbawza Bank Limited (KBZ) led to the four men’s arrest, Rasalingam’s legal team said. KBZ did not respond to a Guardian request for comment.

When Rasalingam was arrested, he claimed he was denied food for three days and also forbidden consular access, Garbutt added. “He was told that if he didn’t sign paperwork in Burmese admitting to a crime he would be held for a long time,” she said…[We invited KBZ Bank to respond; response provided]