Disappeared Vietnam blogger accused of abusing power

Police claim Truong Duy Nhat took advantage of his position to buy properties.

Activists believe that Vietnamese blogger Truong Duy Nhat was kidnapped at a Bangkok shopping center in January after applying for refugee status in the Thai capital. (Photo courtesy of Facebooker Huynh Ngoc Chenh)

Hanoi:  Vietnamese police have charged a dissident blogger who disappeared in Thailand two months ago with abusing his position and power to make a financial loss.

Lt. Gen. Tran Van Ve, a spokesman for the Public Security Ministry, said police had determined that Truong Duy Nhat had taken advantage of state-run Dai Doan Ket newspaper’s documents to buy properties without an auction, causing financial loss to the state.

Nhat, 54, worked as the newspaper’s chief representative in his home city of Da Nang from 1995 to 2010.

“The case is still under investigation, so more details are not released,” Lt. Gen. Ve told a press conference on March 25 in capital Hanoi.

He said Nhat was found to be involved in the case of Phan Van Anh Vu, a high-rolling property developer and secret spy who was jailed for 25 years for “divulging state secrets” and “abusing his position and power to appropriate properties” last year.

He said 21 officials and officers have been tried for their involvement in Vu’s crimes. Vu is still being investigated for other cases.

On March 26, state-run Thanhnien newspaper reported that in 2004 Nhat representing Dai Doan Ket bought a government-controlled house in Da Nang and later transferred the property to Vu’s family.

Activists believe the blogger was kidnapped by Vietnamese agents at the Future Park shopping mall on the outskirts of Bangkok on Jan. 26 after the father of one had applied for refugee status at the UNHCR’s office in Thailand’s capital the previous day.

Last week his wife Cao Thi Xuan Phuong was informed that her husband was arrested on Jan. 28 and has been held at a detention center in Hanoi.

Activists said the communist government did not dare mention the abduction so as to avoid condemnation from the international community.

In 2017, Vietnamese agents kidnapped Trinh Xuan Thanh, a disgraced former official, from a Berlin park, bundled him into a van and took him back to Vietnam, according to German media.

Hanoi said Thanh returned of his own free will to face trial but the case has badly damaged diplomatic relations with Germany. Last year a Vietnamese man was jailed for four years in Germany for taking part in the kidnap.

Activists claim the two kidnaps prove that Vietnam is a lawless state.

Source: UCAN