Germany charges Vietnamese man over cold war-style kidnapping of oil executive
Berlin says the suspected agent took part in the brazen abduction of Trinh Xuan Thanh on July 23 last year, which Hanoi denies
German prosecutors on Wednesday laid charges against a suspected Vietnamese agent over last year’s cold war-style kidnapping of a fugitive state company official in Berlin which has badly strained bilateral ties.
The 47-year-old man – identified only as Long N.H. in keeping with German privacy rules in judicial cases – was charged with working for a foreign intelligence service and aiding in an abduction.
The charges each carry up to 10 years’ prison. No trial date has been announced.
Germany believes Long N.H. took part in the brazen kidnapping, denied by Hanoi, of state company executive Trinh Xuan Thanh, who has since been sentenced to two life terms in Vietnamese high-profile corruption trials.
Thanh, who was in Germany seeking asylum, was snatched last July 23 while walking in Berlin’s central Tiergarten park and reappeared days later, in police captivity, on Vietnamese state television.
Vietnam has insisted he voluntarily turned himself in, but Germany says he was abducted in a “scandalous violation” of its sovereignty in a kidnapping that Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said evoked “thriller movies about the cold war”.