“When called out about abandoning a British political prisoner in a Burmese jail, the response of the British government has been to shoot the messenger,” said Mark Farmaner, Director of Burma Campaign UK. “In defending itself against inaction for Phil Blackwood, the Foreign Office has been more critical of Burma Campaign UK than of the military backed government which locked him up.”

On Monday Burma Campaign UK accused Foreign Office Minister Hugo Swire of “abandoning” British political prisoner Philip Blackwood, currently serving two and a half years hard labour in Myanmar’s notorious Insein jail.

Mr Blackwood, who has joint British and New Zealand citizenship, and two Myanmar colleagues, Tun Thurein and Htut Ko Ko Lwin, were given two and a half years hard labour in March 2015 for ‘insulting Buddhism’. A picture of Buddha wearing headphones had been uploaded on the Facebook page of the bar they worked in. Buddhist nationalists protested and the Myanmar government jumped on the case to try to win support from nationalists. The trial and convictions were clearly politically motivated, according to the NGO.

The NGO claims Mr Swire appears unwilling to publicly defend his own actions and decisions. Instead he has hidden behind unnamed spokespeople for the Foreign Office who have accused ‎Burma Campaign UK of making misleading statements. “In fact it is the Foreign Office which is issuing misleading statements. They have been unable to refute a single fact in our media release,” the NGO says.