A year and a half after six foreign tourists died from methanol poisoning in Laos, authorities have charged a distillery owner with selling food harmful to health and operating an illegal business, The Star reports.
The charges were announced by Denmark’s Foreign Ministry on Friday. If convicted, the accused faces between three months and four years in prison and a fine.
Two Danish women, 20-year-old Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman and 21-year-old Freja Vennervald Sørensen, were among the victims. The others were Australian teenagers Bianca Jones and Holly Morton-Bowles, British lawyer Simone White and U.S. citizen James Louis Hutson.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said he was “deeply disappointed” that the charges did not reflect the seriousness of the tragedy.
“It is difficult to come to terms with such a lenient indictment,” Rasmussen said, according to the Danish Foreign Ministry.
The six victims had stayed at the Nana Backpacker Hostel in Vang Vieng, where some reportedly drank free shots of Lao vodka before falling ill with methanol poisoning.
The Danish and Australian governments have criticised the Lao authorities’ handling of the case. Australia has sent an envoy to Laos and summoned the Lao ambassador in Canberra.
