New Zealand has called for the immediate release of pilot Phillip Mehrtens who was taken captive by fighters in Indonesia’s troubled Papua province a year ago.
Mehrtens, who was flying a single-propeller plane for Indonesia’s Susi Air, was snatched from his aircraft on February 7 last year by a group of fighters from the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPN-PB) who said he would only be released if Papua was given its independence.
