BANGKOK – A team of European lawmakers has criticized the Lao government's failure to accept international help in solving the mysterious disappearance of a prominent social activist eight months ago.
Sombath Somphone was last seen in closed-circuit video footage when he was stopped at a police checkpoint in the Lao capital of Vientiane on Dec. 15. The Lao government denies knowledge of his fate.
Speaking to reporters in Bangkok on Wednesday, lawmaker Soren Bo Sondergaard denounced Laos' refusal of international assistance to interpret the footage.
He also accused officials of telling "ridiculous lies" by suggesting that the person in the video might not be Sombath.
The case of Sombath's disappearance has put a rare spotlight on the authoritarian nation's murky governance and human rights record.
