BANGKOK (AP) — A court in Laos has brought charges against a distillery owner in connection with the deaths of foreign tourists in Laos in 2024. The charges will make the accused liable to a prison sentence of between three months and four years and a fine if found guilty, Denmark's foreign ministry announced Friday.
Two Danish women, Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman, 20, and Freja Vennervald Sorensen, 21, were among six foreigners killed by drinking tainted
alcohol at a tourist hostel in Vang Vieng in November 2024.
The ministry's statement, issued in Copenhagen and citing Lao authorities, said the charges were selling food that is harmful to health and operating an illegal business.
It also said the case will formally remain open for 15 years, and charges can still be brought for a more serious offense, such as negligent homicide, if proof is sufficient. It did not say if the charges were related to all the deaths.
The other victims were Australian teenagers Bianca Jones and Holly Morton-Bowles, both 19; British lawyer Simone White, 28; and according to Lao media, U.S. citizen James Louis Hutson, 57.
The Danish foreign ministry statement cited Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen as declaring that he was deeply disappointed that the indictment didn’t reflect the seriousness and extent of the tragedy affecting so many families.
He acknowledged it can be complicated to meet the precise burden of proof required to bring the most serious charges in such a case, but also pointed out that it is difficult to come to terms with such a lenient indictment.
Rasmussen said that now his office will work with the relatives and other affected countries to discuss their next moves in the case.
Australia’s government and the families of the Australian teenagers who died of methanol poisoning in Laos had on Friday morning lambasted as inadequate the charges they anticipated from the authorities in the Lao capital, Vientiane.
The families held a news conference to announce that the charges were expected to be officially revealed and to express their anger that they were likely to be for minor offenses.
“It’s like their lives didn’t even matter," said Bianca Jones’ mother, Michelle. "We’re just really appalled by it all. You know, they were just going over to have a bit of fun and just doing the rite of passage that every, you know, child or teenager does. So for that outcome, it was just devastating.”
The announcement of charges was made at the Ministry of Public Security in Vientiane. A request from The Associated Press for entry to cover the proceedings was not approved, but cars from the embassies of at least two of the concerned countries, Australia and Britain, were seen leaving that location on Friday afternoon.
Vennervald Sørensen’s parents earlier said they have been left in the dark since the tragedy, Danish public broadcaster DR reported. No autopsy was performed on their daughter, they said, and the death certificate said she died of the natural cause of cardiac arrest.
The young women had taken precautions throughout their travels, Vennervald Sørensen’s parents said. Her parents told DR that they never knew methanol poisoning could happen and hope to raise awareness of it.
Methanol poisoning is a problem all over the world, not only for tourists but more so for local residents. In the latter case, it is found especially in countries where alcoholic drinks are hard to afford or illicit. Statistics of suspected cases compiled by the medical assistance group Doctors Without Borders show that Indonesia, India and Russia are countries with the most reported incidents.
Methanol is sometimes added to mixed drinks at disreputable bars as a cheaper alternative to ethanol, but can cause severe poisoning or death. It is also a byproduct of poorly distilled home-brew liquor, and could have found its way into bar drinks inadvertently.
The victims had been staying at the Nana Backpacker Hostel, where some reportedly consumed “free shots” of Laotian vodka before heading out to other venues.
When the Australian teens failed to check out as planned, they were found sick in their room and eventually evacuated to hospitals in neighboring Thailand, where they later died.
Speaking at the morning news conference along with the Jones family, Shaun Bowles, the father of Holly Morton-Bowles, had described Friday's anticipated legal development as “mind-boggling because (Laos) is a popular tourist destination for a lot of travelers, a lot of Australian, young Australian travelers and young people from around the world.”
He said he expected potential visitors to Laos to reconsider going “because they’ve demonstrated, the way that they act, and as I say, the value that they put on tourists’ lives over there and the way they’ve tried to cover this up.”
Reaction from the other victims' families was not immediately available.
Landlocked Laos is one of Southeast Asia’s poorest nations and a popular tourist destination. Vang Vieng is particularly popular among backpackers seeking partying and adventure sports.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a statement Friday morning that she was “deeply frustrated and bitterly disappointed" that authorities weren’t pursuing “the most serious charges” in relations to the women’s deaths.
Wong and Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had dispatched an envoy to Laos on Friday “to convey the Australian Government’s objections and reinforce our expectations for an investigation that delivers justice for Holly, Bianca and the other victims of the methanol poisoning,” the minister said. Australian officials had also summoned Laos’ ambassador to Canberra, she added.
Laos is an authoritarian one-party communist state that tightly controls information. A text message from The Associated Press to the Lao Foreign Ministry asking for an official comment received the reply that information would be made available at a news conference that would be open only to local media and the foreign embassies concerned.
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Graham-McLay reported from Auckland, New Zealand. Stefanie Dazio in Berlin contributed to this report.
