Vietnam jails blogger snatched from Thailand

A screenshot from a security video shows Vietnamese blogger Duong Van Thai backing his motorbike out of his residence in Pathum Thani on April 13, 2023, the last time he was seen in Thailand.
A screenshot from a security video shows Vietnamese blogger Duong Van Thai backing his motorbike out of his residence in Pathum Thani on April 13, 2023, the last time he was seen in Thailand.

A Vietnamese blogger who was reportedly abducted from Thailand last year has been sentenced to 12 years in prison, according to local media reports.

Duong Van Thai was charged with posting articles on social media accounts that defamed the government, and allegedly tried to incite people to participate in disruptive activities, according to the news website of Ha Tinh province.

Thai was arrested April 14, 2023 for “illegally entering” Vietnam from Laos without identification papers, according to a statement on the website of the Ha Tinh provincial police.

A representative for Thai was not immediately available for comment.

After completing his sentence, Thai will be under mandatory supervision for three years, the Hanoi People’s Court ruled after a closed trial, according to the VietnamPlus news website.

Thai regularly posted YouTube livestreams that criticised Vietnam’s authoritarian government, accusing it of corruption.

State media said he also ran a Facebook group that published “distorted information” about the private lives of Vietnamese leaders.

He resurfaced in Vietnamese custody last year after disappearing from Thailand where he had fled in 2019 and been granted refugee status. Human Rights Watch accused Vietnam of kidnapping him.

A friend of Thai said he “would never have [voluntarily] returned to Vietnam”.

She said witnesses told her they had seen two white sedan cars block his motorcycle, one from the front and one behind, as he left his residence in Pathum Thani on April 13, 2023, the last time he was seen in Thailand.

Vocabulary

  • abduct: to take somebody away illegally, especially using force - ลักพาตัว
  • allegedly: claimed to have done something wrong, but not yet proven - ที่ถูกกล่าวหา
  • authoritarian: controlling everything and forcing people to obey strict rules and laws - เผด็จการ, เกี่ยวกับอำนาจเบ็ดเสร็จ
  • blogger: a person who writes and publishes a "blog" or onlone diary on the internet -
  • corruption (n): dishonest or illegal behaviour, especially of people in authority -
  • criticised: receiving words of disapproval over something that you have supposedly done wrong - ถูกวิจารณ์, โดนว่า
  • defame: to say or write something bad about someone that is not true and makes other people have a bad opinion of them - ทำลายชื่อเสียง
  • disruptive: causing difficulties that interrupt something or prevent it from functioning normally - ที่แตกแยก
  • distorted (verb): changed something such as information, colour, etc. so that it is no longer true or accurate - บิดเบือน
  • incite: to encourage people to be violent or commit crimes by making them angry or excited - ยั่วยุ ยุยงให้เกิดความรุนแรง
  • mandatory: ordered by a law or rule - ตามข้อบังคับ
  • refugee: (n) a person who has been forced to leave their country or home, because there is a war or for political, religious or social reasons -
  • resurface: to reappear; to become important again - ปรากฎออกมาใหม่
  • sedan: a closed car with a front and back seat for  passengers - รถยนต์ส่วนบุคคลสี่ประตู
  • snatch: to take or get something quickly - ฉุด, ฉก, ดึง, กระชาก, คว้า
  • voluntarily: done because you choose to do it rather than because you have to - ด้วยความสมัครใจ
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