00:0220-year-old Sophie Mellor is on her way to Laos, and safety is top of mind.
00:08Definitely people are aware of it, very much, especially cocktails and free-flooring drinks.
00:1419-year-old Australians Bianca Jones and Holly Morton Bowles and four other tourists
00:19died after drinking cocktails tainted with methanol at a hostel in Vang Vieng in November 2024.
00:26Laos officials say a Laos distillery owner has been charged with operating an illegal business
00:32and selling harmful food products.
00:35The penalties believe to range from a fine to a maximum four years in prison.
00:41The government has now upgraded travel warnings for Laos, saying travellers should exercise
00:46a high degree of caution due to crime, the risk of methanol poisoning and ongoing concerns
00:52around lack of transparency in the justice system, and avoid consuming tiger vodka and
00:59tiger whisky due to safety concerns.
01:02We want to make sure that people are well-warned, that if they want to go to Laos it is
01:10and can
01:11be quite dangerous.
01:12There are a lot of people who are going to not go to Laos because of this, and you can't
01:16blame them, can you?
01:17Laos officials held a press conference announcing the charges on Friday afternoon, but Australian
01:23and other foreign media were denied entry.
01:26We've made it clear as a government that the response to date isn't appropriate considering
01:33the gravity of what happened in Laos.
01:37Laos has previously told the Australian government prosecutors didn't have enough evidence to
01:42link the tiger alcohol consumed with the deaths.
01:45Mark Jones believes the full story hasn't been heard.
01:50There are still perpetrators out there that were involved in getting the methanol into the
01:55drinks that my daughter consumed.
01:57A search for answers in unimaginable grief.
