Duong Van Thai is seen in this undated photo shared by a friend.

 

by Zsombor Peter

 

BANGKOK — Friends and colleagues of Vietnamese dissident Duong Van Thai who had been taking refuge in Thailand are gathering video and eyewitness accounts of his last known moments in Thailand for clues about his suspected abduction and forced return to Vietnam earlier this month.

 

Vietnamese police announced Duong's arrest April 16, claiming he entered the country illegally from Laos, according to Radio Free Asia, a U.S. government-funded private news organization. State media in Vietnam also reported on Duong's arrest for using an undesignated border crossing to enter the country from Laos on April 14.

 

Rights groups and friends of Duong, however, dispute the claim. They say the journalist and blogger would not have returned to Vietnam voluntarily after having fled the communist country, which has one of the worst human rights records in the region, for his safety.

 

"I know that he would never return to Vietnam. And he had written several SOS emails to the U.N. in 2021 to 2022 expressing that ... he's not safe in Thailand," said Grace Bui, a Vietnamese rights activist living in Thailand who knows Duong.

 

"If he's not safe in Thailand because of the Vietnamese government trying to get him, why should he return to Vietnam? So, those [claims] didn't add up," she told VOA.

 

Full story: https://www.voanews.com/a/friends-of-vietnamese-dissident-suspect-state-sponsored-abduction-in-thailand/7068440.html

 

-- © Copyright VOA NEWS 2023-04-28

 

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A serious crime without doubt......presumably the RTP will straining every sinew to catch the culprits and strong action will be taken on the diplomatic front.........what on Earth am i thinking?.....ignore all that.

A region of the world where people just magically disappear and then suddenly reappear in jail.

I am morality of it all TIT

3 hours ago, John Drake said:

A region of the world where people just magically disappear and then suddenly reappear in jail.

Amazing Thailand.