Primary document · United Nations legal opinion

UN Working Group opinion on Truong Duy Nhat

UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention

Opinion No. 42/2020 on the disappearance of Vietnamese journalist Truong Duy Nhat from Thailand and his subsequent detention and conviction in Vietnam.

Document of record · OHCHR · Opinion No. 42/2020

Adopted at the 88th session · 24–28 August 2020

Key extracts & findings

Record 1

From Bangkok to Vietnamese custody

Nhat disappeared in Bangkok in January 2019 after seeking refugee protection and later appeared in Vietnamese custody. Vietnam said he returned voluntarily; that account was disputed.

Finding 1

Detention found arbitrary

The Working Group found his detention arbitrary and connected to the exercise of freedom of expression, and identified violations of fair-trial guarantees.

Finding 2

The transfer was not independently resolved

The opinion examined allegations of cross-border abduction. It did not supply a judicially tested account of every step in the transfer, and Thailand did not respond to the Working Group.

Extracts are summarised from the document of record, which is linked above. Where a passage is disputed, this newsroom will publish the correction alongside the extract.