NEIL RATLEY, SIOBHAN DOWNES AND AP

ROBERT KITCHIN/Stuff.co.nz

Friend Nathan Green believes the jailing of Wellington man Phil Blackwood in Myanmar is over the top.

A Wellington man sentenced to two and a half years of hard labour in Myanmar faces a very tough life shackled to other prisoners, according to a fellow Kiwi who has witnessed the work gangs.

Philip Blackwood learned his grim fate on Tuesday in a Yangon court after he and two Burmese colleagues were found guilty of offending Buddhism by posting an online advertisement of a psychedelic Buddha wearing headphones to promote their VGastro bar.

The harsh penalty has attracted wide criticism and prompted shock among his friends, who fear how he will cope.

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Kiwi bar manager Philip Blackwood has been detained in Burma.

"I have seen prisoners on the move shackled to each other with manacles on their ankles and chains that bind them from one man to the next. It reminds me of the hard labour slave trade in the 18th and 19th century. It is inhumane,"' said one of his Kiwi friends, who requested anonymity.

Earlier, humanitarian organisation Amnesty International condemned Blackwood's sentence.

See the article here:
NZer found guilty of offending Buddhism with bar image