A Croydon man who has spent almost two years languishing in a notorious south-east Asian jail without trial cannot read documents or understand legal proceedings related to his case because the British embassy will not pay for translation services.
Niranjan Rasalingam, 29, has been locked up in Insein prison in Yangon, the largest city in Myanmar, since December 2014 following his arrest on suspicion of credit card fraud worth nearly £14,000.
Since then he has appeared in court more than 200 times without standing trial alongside three Indian co-defendants. The group were allegedly forced to sign confessions admitting to the fraud soon after their arrest.
Mr Rasalingam, of Cherry Orchard Road, maintains he simply withdrew money from a cash machine using his own card while in Myanmar, also known as Burma, on a business trip.
UK police are understood to have confirmed the transactions were legitimate.
It has now emerged that Mr Rasalingam, an accountant who worked in Tooting, has been unable to follow his own protracted legal proceedings because he has been denied access to translation services.
The Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO), which is responsible for British embassies around the world, said it could not intervene or provide any translation or interpretation services for legal proceedings abroad, which it stressed was the responsibility of the country where they are taking place.
But Mark Farmaner, director of the Burma Campaign UK, this week called on the British Government to "recognise the exceptional circumstances in Burma" and provide more help for Mr Rasalingam.
Mr Farmaner said: "Obviously, they're not doing nearly enough. We can't have a British citizen left in jail for two years without being convicted of any crime or not having a fair trial.
"The most [the British Embassy] give out is a list of solicitors you can call when you're in trouble, and that's it. They don't give any practical help at all [and] the situation in Burma's jails is dreadful."
Offering translation and interpretation services for Mr Rasalingam's legal proceedings was the least the embassy could do, Mr Farmaner said.
In a Home Office report into prison conditions in Myanmar published last November, British officials said there been improvements since 2013 in some of the country's jails "where prisoners basic needs including food and clothing are being met".
But the report continued: “The evidence suggests that conditions remain very poor with prisoners forced to pay bribes or rely on families for basic necessities.
"Prisoners frequently suffered from serious health problems as a result of the unhygienic conditions in detention."
Mr Farmaner said the British Government in fact did have a history legal interference in Burma, including a high-profile call from then Prime Minister David Cameron in 2013 to defend human rights in the country.
Accusing the Government of "hiding behind" its stated position of non-interference, the campaigner said: "On the one hand they say the justice system [in Myanmar] doesn't work - and on the other hand they say its up to them to sort it out."
In a letter to Croydon Central MP Gavin Barwell last summer, then Foreign Office minister, Hugo Swire, said he had written to the Burmese government expressing his concern about Mr Rasalingam's case - but stressed the FCO was not able to directly intervene in the country's legal process.
When Mr Swire visited Myanmar in October last year he did not make a public statement calling for the accountant's release, although Mr Farmaner said the British ambassador to the country had since taken an interest in the case.
Speaking to the Croydon Guardian in March, Mr Rasalingam gave a harrowing account of the "degrading and horrid” treatment he had faced inside Insein.
He had being attacked inside the prison, deprived of food to induce a confession, and forced to rely on friends and family in the UK to pay for his meals, bedding, medicine and £5,000-plus legal fees since his arrest, he said.
Two close members of his family have died during his incarceration, including his grandmother, and his own health has also suffered with recurrent chest infections, according to a former housemate in Cherry Orchard Road.
In February 2015 inspectors from the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission found Insein was operating at more than 50 per cent over its stated capacity, holding 7,876 prisoners, according to the Home Office report.
“[The] prison hospital was severely overcrowded and some cells were found to be unclean and mosquito-infested," the inspectors said.
Mr Rasalingam described being forced to stand caged alongside up to 40 other prisoners in sweltering 40c heat on trips from Insein prison to the courthouse, as prison officers handed out "drugs and alcohol to any inmate who want to buy it".
In April, Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party (NLD) came to power in Myanmar following years of military rule, with promises to introduce political and legal reforms.
Mr Farmaner said: "Now [the NLD] are in Government, there are a lot of opportunities for leverage. [Britain] is still one of the biggest aid donors to the country."
But since April the new government had been "overwhelmed, coming out of 60 years of dictatorships," said Mr Farmaner, who added: "They are never going to get around to a case like Niranjan's unless the British government says: 'You've got to prioritise this.'"
A spokesman for the FCO said it would "continue to raise Mr Niranjan’s case with the Burmese authorities, setting out our concerns regarding the delays in the legal process and the lack of independent translation in court".
In an information leaflet aimed at people who are jailed abroad, the FCO advises imprisoned Britons to "learn the language", because "prison guards may be more helpful if you make an effort to learn the language".
Sue Garbutt, the former British vice-consul in Yangon, who has been helping Mr Rasalingam with his case, said he had been forced to pay "eight times more to date than a local would pay for legal representation".
She added: "In Burma they seem to think foreigners have a bottomless pit of funds."
As a former diplomat herself, Ms Garbutt said she was aware of the FCO's guidelines for interfering in foreign legal proceedings.
But she added: "I still do not think it is right if someone has no money, then their trial takes place without legal representation and without them knowing anything about what is being said or what is happening."
Got a story? Call the newsdesk on 020 8722 6388 or email daniel.omahony@newsquet.co.uk
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