Former Myanmar American Chamber of Commerce board member detained in Spain

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — A former board member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar has been detained in Spain on charges of financial impropriety that he and others maintain were fabricated by the current board.

Munimul Islam, the CEO of Misfit Technologies, was taken into custody upon his arrival at Barcelona's international airport Tuesday to begin a holiday with his wife, according to his attorney Cristián Carci.

His detention is the latest in a monthslong case brought by the AmCham Myanmar against him, former board president Adam Castillo , an American, and former executive director Ye Khaung “Danny” Kyaw , an Australian, and aggressively pursued by Myanmar authorities.

He is accused by AmCham Myanmar of misappropriation of funds in the hiring of a Washington-based public relations firm to assist in lobbying efforts. Documents show, however, that the approximately $300,000 was paid by his company directly to Mercury Public Affairs and declared as required by the U.S. government.

“This is a fabricated case,” Islam, a Bangladesh national, told The Associated Press in a short voice note after his detention. “We have all the evidence, the press has all the evidence, the Myanmar court has been given all the evidence.”

Islam was picked up on an Interpol “Red Notice” that had been requested by Myanmar authorities seeking his arrest on allegations of misappropriation of funds.

Myat Phyu The, the current executive director of AmCham Myanmar, said the organization had not been apprised of Islam's detention.

“Decisions concerning charges, detention, bail, or ultimately guilt are matters for the relevant authorities and courts — not AmCham Myanmar,” she said in an email.

AmCham’s complaint centers on Castillo’s creation of the U.S.-Burma Economic Forum as a lobbying organization for the chamber he served as president from 2023 to 2025, and the 2024 contract Castillo signed with Mercury.

In its official complaint, AmCham Myanmar said Castillo “illegally collected” the $300,000, using the association’s name and that he “did not deposit these funds into the association’s bank accounts.”

In its annual report in May, the chamber said the board never approved the agreement, “made no payments, and received no services,” but other AmCham documents seem to contradict that.

A signed board resolution provided by Castillo's supporters indicated the board approved the lobbying initiative, authorized hiring Mercury, and agreed that Islam’s company, Misfit Technologies, would provide sponsorship.

Myat Phyu The told the AP that the resolution was a recent fabrication, but minutes of meetings from the chamber’s website indicate that the board was aware of the arrangement and approved it.

And while the AmCham maintained it had received no services, the AP confirmed that Mercury did organize and attend multiple meetings in Washington with Castillo and others.

Castillo, a former U.S. Marine, was released Sept. 16, after three months in Yangon's notorious Insein prison, and forced to leave the country after Trump administration officials traveled to the Southeast Asian nation to press for his return.

Myanmar state-run media reported that he had been deported in a gesture to foster “friendly diplomatic relations with all nations,” but he said that there is no evidence of a deportation order in his passport, and he has yet to hear whether any verdict was pronounced against him.

In his first public comments since his release, Castillo told the AP on Thursday that Spain should immediately release Islam.

“Spanish authorities and Interpol should carefully scrutinize how a dispute originating within a local chamber of commerce in Myanmar has been allowed to escalate into an international law-enforcement matter,” he said.

Ye Khaung Kyaw was deported last week after being pressured to take a plea to breach of trust, with the warning that he could spend at least another year in Insein prison while his case went to trial, according to a person present at the proceedings who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of possible retribution.

Myanmar, which is engulfed in a bloody civil war, is headed by President Min Aung Hlaing, who led the group of military officers that seized control from the democratically elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi , in 2021.

Since then, he has consolidated power and held elections at the start of the year, which critics said were neither free nor fair, as part of an effort to secure greater international legitimacy . Human Rights Watch and other groups have reported that the government has also revised the country's legal system to facilitate its crackdown on any dissent, and kept proceedings closed to the public.

Acting Police Brig. Gen. Soe Lin Aung, a spokesperson for Myanmar’s Home Affairs Ministry, which oversees the country’s police forces, told the AP he had not been informed of Islam’s arrest and the Foreign Ministry’s official did not respond to requests for comment.

Following his hearing, Islam was ordered held in custody because he has no residence in Spain. He is appealing the decision and will fight extradition, Carci said.

It seems unlikely the courts would approve an extradition to Myanmar. Under European Union regulations, such a request can be denied if a person faces the risk of torture , which the United Nations has said has become “systematic” following the military's seizure of power.

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Rising reported from Bangkok. Associated Press writer John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report.