Prague agrees to hand Vietnamese ‘kidnapper’ to Germany
PRAGUE: Czech authorities have agreed to extradite to Germany a Vietnamese national wanted over the alleged kidnapping in Berlin last month of an oil tycoon who subsequently turned up in Vietnam, local media reported Wednesday.
According to German media, 51-year-old Vietnamese oil tycoon Trinh Xuan Thanh — who was in Germany seeking asylum, but sought by Hanoi for allegedly causing huge losses to a state-run company — was snatched by armed men on July 23 in Berlin’s Tiergarten park.
A Prague court ordered the extradition of a suspected kidnapper, identified only as a 46year-old Vietnamese national, on August 15, the Czech CTK news agency reported Wednesday.
“We took the decision (extradition) on the basis of a European arrest warrant,” court spokeswoman Marketa Puci told AFP, but declined to provide further details about the suspect’s identity.
Trinh resurfaced in Vietnam on July 31, where state-owned newspapers reported that he had turned himself in to authorities.
According to German news agency DPA, he has been accused of having caused losses amounting to 125 million euros (US$148 million) at Petro Vietnam Construction (PVC), a subsidiaryofthecountry’slargest state-run oil conglomerate.
The alleged kidnapping has caused a diplomatic rift between Germany and V ietnam, with Berlin summoning Vietnam’s ambassador and expelling one of the southeast Asian nation’s spies earlier this month. — AFP