Australian border officials have denied blocking a Kiwi being released from a Myanmar prison, as claimed by his parents.
Philip Blackwood, a former Wellington man, was found guilty of insulting religion in Myanmar by using an image of the Buddha wearing headphones on Facebook to promote the bar he managed.
He has spent more than a year in prison but was last week put on an amnesty list, which will allow him to be set free.
Blackwood's mother, Angela, said he was due to arrive back in New Zealand on Tuesday on a flight passing through Sydney.
But she said Australian officials had blocked his transit request after finding out about his conviction.
He will have to stay in a cell until another flight going an alternative route through Bangkok later in the week.
But a spokesman for the Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection said it appeared no request for transit had been made.
"The department is aware of media reporting on this issue but holds no information which suggests a formal request was, or has been, made for Mr Blackwood to transit Australia. No such request was 'denied'," he said.
Blackwood and his two Myanmar co-accused were all sentenced to more than two years with hard labour last March.
The poster, which appeared in 2014 on the Facebook page of the newly opened Yangon bar, sparked outrage on social media in the predominantly Buddhist country.
Bar general manager Blackwood, bar owner Tun Thurein, 40, and manager Htut Ko Ko Lwin, 26, were arrested and charged with breaching the Religion Act.
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