Vietnam ‘agent’ held in 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 dragged Thanh into the vehicle before he was “taken against his will to Vietnam, where he is in state custody”.

The unprecedented case angered Germany, which summoned the Vietnamese ambassador, kicked out the representative of the Vietnamese secret service and decried the “violation” of its sovereignty.

The one-party state of Vietnam has waged an aggressive anticorruption purge, but analysts say it is often driven by political infighting. /