New Zealand bar manager Philip Blackwood (C) is escorted by police to court in Yangon on March 17, 2015, where he was sentenced to two and a half years in jail for using a Buddha image to promote a cheap drinks night
e-News® | The NEWS Company…Yangon, March 19, 2015 : A New Zealand bar manager and his two Myanmar colleagues were jailed for two and a half years with hard labour by a Yangon court Tuesday for using a Buddha image to promote a cheap drinks night.
The ad posted on Facebook in December caused a stir of outrage in the former junta-ruled country, where surging Buddhist nationalism and religious violence has sparked international concern. Philip Blackwood, who worked at the VGastro bar in Yangon, was found guilty of insulting religion along with the bar’s Myanmar owner and manager, after the New Zealander posted a mocked-up photo of the Buddha wearing DJ headphones on Facebook — in reference to a well-known international club brand.
In emotional scenes after the verdict, family members of the two Myanmar defendants expressed shock and fury at the sentencing, with the mother of one exchanging barbs with a handful of nationalist monks waiting outside.
The case has been watched closely by international observers amid fears that the Buddhist-majority country, which has seen a surge in foreign investment since it began emerging from the grip of the military in 2011, is seeing its much-lauded reforms stalling.
Blackwood, who has a seven month old daughter, along with 40-year-old bar owner Tun Thurein and manager Htut Ko Ko Lwin, 26, have been held in Yangon’s notorious Insein prison since their arrest in December.
The trio, who all denied the charges, were sentenced to two years in jail for insulting religion through written word or pictures and a further six months for breaching local authority regulations. Both offences carry the punishment of hard labour.
