Germany angry at Vietnam for reported cold war-style abduction of businessman
Hanoi insists businessman turned himself in, rejecting kidnapping allegations by Berlin
Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Friday that Germany was considering measures against Vietnam for kidnapping a former oil executive and described the abduction, denied by Hanoi, as reminiscent of cold war spy movies.
Germany says Vietnamese businessman Trinh Xuan Thanh, 51, was seized in Germany and spirited to Vietnam where he is suspected of corruption and causing around US$150 million in losses at a Vietnamese state firm.
Hanoi says he returned home voluntarily.
Thanh “was taken out of Germany using methods which we believe one sees in thriller films about the cold war. And this is something that we cannot accept,” Gabriel told a news conference
Gabriel, speaking after talks in Wolfsburg with Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak, said Germany was considering punitive measures against Vietnam, but did not elaborate.
Gabriel said Germany had asked a Vietnamese intelligence officer at the embassy in Berlin to leave. A foreign ministry source said it assumed the officer had left Germany after Berlin on Wednesday set a 48-hour deadline for his departure.