Press Freedom
A journalist disappeared in Thailand and surfaced in a Vietnamese prison
The official accounts never closed the gap between Truong Duy Nhat's disappearance in Bangkok and his reappearance in Vietnamese custody.
Truong Duy Nhat disappeared from Bangkok in January 2019 after approaching the UN refugee agency. Weeks later, the Vietnamese journalist was in custody in Hanoi. Vietnam said he had returned voluntarily. His family and human-rights organisations disputed that account.[1]
The distance between those accounts is where international protection either works or fails. A journalist who seeks refuge cannot be moved across a border outside a lawful process and then left to prove, from a prison cell, how he arrived there.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found Nhat's detention arbitrary and connected to the exercise of freedom of expression. It also identified failures of due process.[2] Thailand did not respond to the Working Group; Vietnam did. The opinion records both the response and the evidence against it.
No public record has independently reconstructed every stage of the transfer. That uncertainty is not a reason to close the file. It is the reason the file stays open: which officers moved him, through which crossing, under what authority, and what did the country from which he disappeared do to investigate?
Citations & source document
- [1]WGAD Opinion No. 42/2020 — disappearance and custodyFrom Bangkok to Vietnamese custodyThe competing accounts of Nhat's movement from Thailand to Vietnam.
- [2]WGAD Opinion No. 42/2020 — findingDetention found arbitraryThe Working Group's finding of arbitrary detention and violations connected to expression and fair trial.
Every document cited above is held on this site, with the key clauses, extracts and findings set out in full and a link to the document of record.
Sources
Independent reporting by Pearce Robinson. Corrections and responses may be submitted here.
