FUGITIVE’S ABDUCTION
Vietnam ‘agent’ held in Berlin
Vietnam’s aggressive anticorruption purge is often driven by political infighting, say analysts
Berlin — Germany has remanded in custody a suspected Vietnamese agent accused in the brazen kidnapping of a fugitive state company official in Berlin last month, a case that has badly strained bilateral ties. The target, Trinh Xuan Thanh, who was in Germany seeking asylum, was spirited back to Vietnam last month, where he faces corruption charges that carry the death penalty. One of the alleged agents involved in snatching him from Berlin’s Tiergarten park was arrested by Czech authorities soon after the kidnapping. On Wednesday, he was extradited to Germany, where a day later, a judge ordered him to be held in custody. The agent was identified only as 46-year-old Long NH, in keeping with German privacy rules in judicial cases. He is accused of working for a foreign intelligence service and aiding in an abduction, which each carry sentences of up to 10 years’ prison. German prosecutors say the suspect rented a Volkswagen van in Prague and drove it to Berlin, where several armed men ...
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