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Abbott asked to help Aussie in Thailand

The family of an Australian journalist facing criminal defamation charges in Thailand has appealed for Prime Minister Tony Abbott's help in getting his passport back so he can return home to visit his ailing 91-year-old father.

Alan Morison from Melbourne, editor of online website Phuketwan, and Thai reporter Chutima Sidasathan, have been charged under Thailand's tough Computer Crimes Act and face lengthy jail terms if found guilty.

At a preliminary hearing in April, Morison was ordered by the Phuket Provincial Court to relinquish his Australian passport, preventing him from leaving Thailand.

But Morison's sisters, Jenny Braddy, Cathy Schmierer, Jill Morison and Lisa Kovaleff, in an open letter asked Mr Abbott to press Thailand for the return of Morison's passport.

"Our father is about to turn 91 years old and in rapidly declining health," the letter read.

"Because our brother's passport has been seized, he is not permitted to leave Thailand. He has been told any application for temporary use of his passport will require an emergency of some kind," it added.

Morison and Chutima were charged last year by the Royal Thai Navy after Phuketwan published excerpts of a Thomson-Reuters report accusing the navy of involvement in the trafficking of Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.

Morison's sisters referred to a recent intervention by the British government in aid of one of its nationals, activist Andy Hall, who is on trial on defamation charges brought by a Thai food processing company he accused of labour rights abuses in a report published last year.

The British government's application to a Thai court for the return of Mr Hall's passport was granted.

Morison's case is not due to resume until early 2015, leading to what his sisters say leads to the journalist "remaining a prisoner in Thailand".

The women say as Morison is a long-time resident of Thailand, he is "not a flight risk".

"We would now welcome the Australian government adopting the same approach as the British government and asking for the Phuket Provincial Court to return (our) brother's passport," they said.