Rights group accuses Vietnam of abducting Australian and Norwegian activists
Vietnam says the men entered the country illegally and accused them of planning terrorist activities.
Rights group accuses Vietnam of abducting Australian and Norwegian activists
Nguyen Duc Thuan (left) and Tran Hiep have been held in Vietnam in what a pro-democracy group has described as an act of "transnational repression"
A pro-democracy organisation has accused the Vietnamese government of abducting two of its members — an Australian and a Norwegian citizen — in Cambodia and bringing them back across the border.
Vietnamese authorities said they had arrested Tran Hiep and Nguyen Duc Thuan, but claimed the pair had entered the country with forged documents and intended to carry out terrorist activities.
They said the men had admitted they were members of Viet Tan, which Vietnam regards as a terrorist organisation.
Viet Tan called the arrests a "blatant fabrication intended to conceal the fact that the Viet Tan members were abducted in Cambodia and forcibly taken to Vietnam".
The group, which has members in Vietnam and overseas, said the two men had been travelling in the southern border district of Kaoh Andaet in Cambodia when they disappeared and had not been heard from since 18 September.
Tran's wife, Chloe Dang, told Australian media that he had been meeting pro-democracy activists in Cambodia and had no intention of travelling to Vietnam.
She said he was supposed to meet her in Bangkok to catch a return flight to Australia, but never arrived.
"He always knew there was a risk doing human rights work, but we never thought that this would happen," she told the ABC.
A Vietnamese state media report published on Monday said Tran and Nguyen were detained with a third man at the border in Tay Ninh province on 18 September.
The trio "confessed to being members of the terrorist organisation 'Viet Tan,' [and] carrying forged documents to illegally enter Vietnam in order to carry out terrorist and sabotage activities," the report said.
On Monday, they were charged with membership of a terrorist organisation while investigators continued "to clarify the criminal acts of the suspects in order to handle them according to the law", it said.
"A state orchestrating the abduction of individuals abroad and forcibly taking them to its territory is a serious act of transnational repression," said Viet Tan. "It violates Cambodia's sovereignty and the fundamental principles of international law."
The Viet Tan statement did not refer to the third man, whom authorities named as Thai Cong Truong Son.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said consular support was being provided to Tran's family.
"That's what Australian governments do for our citizens. And we'll continue to engage directly with the family."
"Vietnam authorities' confirmation that they detained [these] activists... demonstrates yet again that Hanoi is arguably the most vicious and pernicious practitioner of transnational repression today in Southeast Asia," Phil Robertson, Director of Asia Human Rights and Labor Advocates said in a statement.
"This latest act is an unacceptable outrage."