Aussie businessman safe

Aussie businessman safe

CANBERRA (AP): An Australian businessman was detained by Indonesian authorities on the strife-torn island of Ambon after they discovered two guns on his boat, officials said Saturday.

Sydney adventurer Hans Tholstrup, 54, was safe in a hotel on Ambon after being released without charges being laid, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman Tony Melville said.

Late Friday, Tholstrup told freelance television cameramen Danny Sim by satellite telephone he was being held captive by the Indonesian military, who he feared would kill him.

Sim said Tholstrup told him he was under house arrest and that a soldier had a gun pointed at his head, before the line went dead.

Melville said on Saturday that a departmental official had spoken to Tholstrup overnight, at the Wijaya Hotel.

"He is in a hotel in Ambon, customs has cleared him to leave, our consular official in Jakarta spoke with them and he has not been charged, nor is likely to be," Melville said.

Tholstrup is en route from the northern Australian city of Darwin to Japan in a 5-meter (yard) open boat. Sim, who is videotaping part of the journey, said Tholstrup was carrying two guns because of fears of pirate in the Philippines.