Indonesia has deported an American journalist working for a website that reported on sensitive environmental issues in the Southeast Asian archipelago over an alleged visa violation, his employer said Friday. Philip Jacobson, 30, was initially detained last month after attending a hearing in Borneo involving the local parliament and the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago, Indonesia's largest indigenous rights advocacy group.

He was later arrested and told he faced up to five years in prison for visiting the country with the wrong visa in a case that drew international headlines. Jacobson had travelled to Indonesia on a business visa, according to his employer Mongabay. On Friday, Mongabay said Jacobson had been sent to the capital Jakarta and was then put on a flight to the United States.