A British bar manager, Philip Blackwood, jailed in Insein prison for insulting Buddhism has been named as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International while his family and human rights activists continue to campaign for his release, Britain’s the Telegraph reported on 7 October.
His supporters have argued that his prosecution for religious defamation for uploading an image of a Buddha wearing headphones to advertise his bar was a manoeuvre by the military-backed government to court Buddhist nationalist support.
Mr Blackwood was sentenced to 30-months hard labour.