Myanmar’s former ambassador to the United Kingdom appeared in a London court on Wednesday on trespassing charges for refusing to leave a diplomatic residence after being locked out of the embassy.
When the military seized power in a coup in February 2021, Ambassador Kyaw Zwar Minn denounced the takeover and pledged his loyalty to the opposition movement.
He was immediately dismissed by the junta and locked out of the embassy, but refused to leave Myanmar House, the ambassador’s official residence in northwest London. Kyaw Zwar Minn, now 68, has argued that Myanmar’s military government, which handed power to a “civilian” government in April of this year, was illegitimate and had no authority to ask him to vacate the property.
In May of last year, he was charged by London police last week with trespassing on a diplomatic premises between May 2021 and November 2024.
During the hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, Prosecutor Louise Oakley argued that he had been recalled as ambassador shortly after the 2021 coup, Reuters reported. She added that the military administration had instructed Kyaw Zwar Minn to “hand over state-owned properties” by the middle of April 2021, and that Britain’s Foreign Office has also told him to leave the residence.
“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 offense of diplomatic trespass,” Oakley said.
Kyaw Zwar Minn’s lawyer David Perry told the court that his client’s case was that “the government of Myanmar is illegitimate” and that it “could not lawfully terminate his license at the (diplomatic) address,” nor “legitimately use the property.”
Oakley argued that the National Unity Government, the opposition umbrella group to which Kyaw Zwar Minn has aligned himself, has not been recognized by London, even if many democratic nations have sanctioned the post-coup government and downgraded their representation in the country.
“This defendant may not recognize the outcome of the coup and the construction of the government in Myanmar – that, we submit, is irrelevant,” she said.
Among those who gave evidence on Wednesday was Win Zeyar Tun, chargé d’affaires at the Myanmar Embassy in London, and Eleanor Mackewn, the deputy director of protocol at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.
After the coup, some British officials praised Kyaw Zwar Minn’s principled opposition to the coup, which the U.K. government also forcefully condemned. However, his continued occupation of Myanmar House has presented it with a diplomatic headache.
As the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent James Landale pinpointed in an April 2021 report, the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations states that an ambassador’s job officially ends once the host country has been informed of the change. However, by accepting that Kyaw Zwar Minn has been dismissed by his host government, the U.K. might “face accusations that it is tacitly accepting the authority of the regime in Myanmar,” Landale wrote.
Initially, the U.K. government sought to take a middle road. When the military junta requested that the authorities evict Kyaw Zwar Minn by force, the government declined to do so, instead urging the envoy to find alternative accommodation. His refusal to do more or less forced the authorities to press charges.
While Kyaw Zwar Minn benefited from a surge of sympathy in the wake of the coup, attention on the country has faded to a large extent over the past five years. This means that the U.K. government is unlikely to face much reputational damage if it forced to evict him and turn the property over to officials loyal to Naypyidaw. The moral force of Kyaw Zwar Minn’s argument, and the legal requirements of the Vienna Convention, suggest that his days in Myanmar House may be numbered.
The trial is to resume at Westminster Magistrates Court on September 25.