The Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday expressed regret over a statement from Germany accusing Vietnam of kidnapping a former oil executive, and said Hanoi wants to develop a “strategic relationship” with Germany.
The German Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday accused Vietnam of kidnapping Trinh Xuan Thanh, a former executive at state oil company PetroVietnam, who faces charges of financial mismanagement in Vietnam.
Berlin ordered a Vietnamese intelligence officer to leave Germany within 48 hours in response, and demanded that Thanh be allowed to return to Germany.
It is unclear if the Vietnamese intelligence officer has left Germany yet.
“I feel sorry about the statement on August 2 of the German foreign ministry spokesperson,” Vietnamese foreign ministry’s spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang told reporters in Hanoi. “Vietnam very much respects and wants to develop the strategic partnership relation between Vietnam and Germany.”
Germany’s foreign ministry said it was considering further action to an “unprecedented ... breach of German and international law” over the abduction of Thanh, who is accused of causing about US$150 million in losses at PetroVietnam.
After a 10-month international manhunt, Thanh turned himself in on Monday, Vietnamese police said, without saying why. The Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security said he is under investigation, the foreign ministry spokesperson said.
A person at Thanh’s house, located in an up-market residential area on the outskirts Hanoi, declined to comment and told reporters none of Thanh’s family members were home.
Some residents in Hanoi said they could not access social network platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter late on Wednesday and early yesterday, but they said the sites were now back to normal.
It was not immediately clear why the social network platforms were inaccessible and whether it was in relation to Germany’s accusations.
It is not unusual for social media to be temporarily closed in Vietnam where authorities often censor news.
Nguyen Quang A, a retired computer scientist and vocal government critic, said on his Facebook page someone had tried unsuccessfully to hack his account 16 times early yesterday.
He said in comments on his Facebook page the kidnapping was “stupid” and would cause severe diplomatic consequences.
Other activists have also publicly criticized the government over the kidnapping allegations.
Thanh, 51, was a former high flyer at PetroVietnam Construction JSC. He came to public attention in the middle of last year when he was found to have a luxury Lexus car with a government license plate, causing an outcry in a country where officials are expected to live modestly.
That prompted the head of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Nguyen Phu Trong, to order an investigation into his career and how he had been given promotions despite the alleged losses at PetroVietnam Construction.
Thanh took sick leave last year and went abroad, vanishing from the public eye until now.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
RSS