Authorities in Laos have issued a statement days after it was announced that a court has brought charges against the owner of a distillery connected to the deaths of six tourists

DFAT has told the parents of the teens who died after a mass methanol poisoning incident that Lao authorities were unlikely to lay down severe charges.

Foreign officials suggested the owner could face up to four years in prison, if convicted, after the victims’ families were devastated by the possibility of a lesser penalty.