A Croydon man who has spent almost two years languishing in a notorious south-east Asian jail without trial said the British embassy is giving him “empty promises” about helping him.

Niranjan Rasalingam, 29, has been locked up in Insein prison in Yangon, Myanmar, since December 2014 following his arrest on suspicion of credit card fraud worth nearly £14,000.

After the Croydon Guardian reported last month how Mr Rasalingam could not understand legal proceedings because of a lack of translation services, a representative from the British embassy told him the Attorney General’s office would provide an interpreter.

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But last week Mr Rasalingam said the promised translation help had yet to materialise, and accused the British embassy of “empty promises”.

Speaking to Sue Garbutt, the former British vice-consul in Yangon, via e-mail, Mr Rasalingam said: “I don’t know what is happening with my trial. I was told it has been delayed because of the interpreter, and I didn’t know who the witness was that didn’t turn up.

“I don’t thinks the embassy is really helping me.”

In August a spokesman for the Foreign Commonwealth Office said: "‘We 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."

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