Duong Van Thai

October 2024

Blogger Duong Van Thai was tried on Oct. 30 and given a 12-year sentence plus three years of probation for engaging in “anti-state propaganda” based on Section 2 of Article 117 of the Criminal Code. Section 2 applies to activities deemed “especially dangerous” and may carry a prison sentence between 10 to 20 years. A former blogger for RFA, Thai was a UN refugee in Thailand awaiting relocation to a third country when he mysteriously disappeared in April 2023. A few weeks later, he was shown by state media to be in police custody in Vietnam. The government claimed that Thai was trying to enter Vietnam illegally but did not provide any proof. A spokesperson for the Department of State said the U.S. is deeply concerned about Thai’s “harsh sentence” and troubled by allegations that he was abducted. See also:

Vietnam: RSF appalled by 12-year prison sentence handed on journalist kidnapped in Thailand. Reporters Without Borders; 2024-10-30.

Vietnam: Quash Verdict Against Democracy Campaigner. Human Rights Watch; 2024-10-30.

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Thai was a refugee in Bangkok awaiting relocation to a third country when he was believed to be kidnapped by Vietnamese police and taken back to Vietnam in April 2023 to face “anti-state propaganda” charges under Article 117. Thai’s is not the first case of an extrajudicial return of a Vietnamese dissident from Thailand. In 2019, while journalist Truong Duy Nhat was in Thailand seeking political asylum, he was abducted by undercover Vietnamese police and brought back to Vietnam, where he was later sentenced to ten years in prison.