Outrage quickly spread yesterday after reports in New Zealand media said Australia was keeping Phil Blackwood from getting home by blocking a transit request.
In the latest twist in the Blackwood saga, that now appears to be untrue.
“The Department is aware of media reporting on this issue but holds no information which suggests a formal request was, or has been, made for Mr Blackwood to transit Australia,” a spokesperson for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection told Coconuts Yangon in an email, adding that “no such request was “denied”.”
The comments contradict what Blackwood’s father said in an interview with local media in New Zealand (where Blackwood lives) earlier this week.
“The Australians have blocked him from travelling through. Good God, he’s a political prisoner, it’s neverending,” his father, Brian, said in an interview with New Zealand media.
Last year Blackwood was found guilty, along with two Burmese colleagues, of insulting religion after he posted a photo of a psychedelic Buddha wearing headphones on the Facebook page of the bar he managed in Yangon.
They were sentenced to two and a half years in prison but Blackwood was freed in the amnesty on Friday that included dozens of political prisoners. The fate of his former colleagues remains unclear.
Reports pointing the finger at Australia said immigration officials there had denied transit to Blackwood because of his conviction in Myanmar.
Blackwood’s current whereabouts are unknown. He could still be in Yangon. He could be on his way home. Family members familiar with the case have not responded to requests for comment and neither has the New Zealand embassy.
