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SL lets Aussie hotelier back in after flag spat

24 Dec 2013 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Australian owner of one of the world's most exclusive hotels was given temporary permission to return to his adopted Sri Lankan homeland Tuesday after being barred in a spat over the national flag.

Geoffrey Dobbs, who is also the organiser of an international literary festival in the tourist city of Galle, was initially turned back at Colombo airport for the second time in five days.

But an immigration official said that he had been granted a one-month temporary visa, only minutes before he was due to be flown back to Thailand on a Sri Lankan Airlines flight.

"He is being given a one-month visa to enter the country," U.G. Udowita, the head of immigration at Colombo airport, told AFP.

"This will give him time to sort out his paper work," Udowita added, without elaborating.

Speaking to AFP from the airport, Dobbs confirmed that he had been told he could enter the country.

"I have just been told that I can go (into the country)," Dobbs said in brief comments as he prepared to leave the transit area.

Provincial governor Kumari Balasuriya said earlier Tuesday that Dobbs had been blacklisted after flying four flags -- which each feature the image of a mythical lion -- upside down and near her home in Galle just before last month's Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka.

"He is a very undesirable person and we have decided to blacklist him and prevent him from entering the country," she told AFP.

Balasuriya said that Dobbs had deliberately flown the flags upside down after local workmen had accidentally inverted an Australian flag.

The British-born Dobbs runs four luxury hotels in the Galle region where some rooms cost more than $2,000 a night.

His portfolio includes the private Taprobane Island, whose guests have included pop stars Sting and Kylie Minogue. It has been named one of the world's 50 most romantic locations by Conde Nast Traveller magazine.

The Sri Lankan opposition has said the move to bar Dobbs is part of a strategy by the authorities to seize control of his money-spinning luxury hotels, a charge denied by Balasuriya.

A former publisher, Dobbs has organised the Galle Literary Festival since 2007. The event has drawn writers such as the novelist Joanna Trollope, playwright Tom Stoppard and the children's author Michael Morpurgo.(AFP)

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SL lets Aussie hotelier back in after flag spat

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