The Vietnamese authorities should immediately release three activists associated with the overseas Viet Tan organization who went missing in Cambodia, and drop all charges against them, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should also grant Norwegian and Australian consular officials and family members immediate access to the detained men.
The Vietnamese police claim that Nguyen Duc Thuan, a Norwegian citizen; Tran Hiep (also known as Ho Pham Hiep Huy), an Australian citizen; and Thai Cong Truong Son are members of the outlawed Viet Tan organization and attempted to use fake documents to cross the border from Cambodia to Vietnam on September 18, 2026. The men's relatives say they never attempted to enter Vietnam.
The police announced that they have charged the three men with "terrorism" under article 299 of the penal code for their association with Viet Tan and with forgery of seals and documents under article 341. Viet Tan is an overseas political organization that advocates for democratic change in Vietnam. It contends that the men were abducted in Cambodia.
"The apparent abduction and detention of the foreign nationals raises many questions about the roles of both the Vietnamese and Cambodian governments," said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The Norwegian and Australian governments should press the Vietnamese authorities to grant them immediate access to their nationals and to drop baseless charges against them."
Nguyen Duc Thuan and Tran Hiep flew to Phnom Penh on September 15 and were reportedly in regular contact with family members outside of Cambodia until the morning of September 18, after which neither could be reached. Both men missed other scheduled appointments in Cambodia and the flight they had booked to leave Cambodia on September 19; they have not been heard from since. Their luggage and other effects except phones and passports were found in their hotel rooms in Cambodia.
Nguyen Duc Thuan requires daily insulin injections for diabetes and medical attention for kidney problems.
As of October 11, neither the Australian nor Norwegian embassy had been granted access to the detained men.
The Vietnamese police claimed that the three men crossed the border into Vietnam at Tay Ninh province, and that "Nguyen Duc Thuan was carrying two fake Vietnamese citizen identification cards" under a fake name and a Norwegian passport under his real name. They said that Ho Pham Hiep Huy "was carrying an Australian passport in the name of Tran Hiep." The police statement does not describe Thai Cong Truong Son's identification.
On October 7, Cambodia's Ministry of Interior issued a statement saying it had confirmed that Nguyen Duc Thuan and Tran Hiep had entered Cambodia but had not recorded their exit. And said it "categorically" denied any involvement in handing over the men to the Vietnamese authorities.
In the 1980s, Viet Tan had engaged in armed resistance against Vietnam's communist government. Viet Tan relaunched in 2004 as a political party committed to nonviolent change, but the Vietnamese authorities have arrested and imprisoned Viet Tan members. In 2016, Vietnam officially labeled Viet Tan a "terrorist group."
In 2019, an Australian member of Viet Tan, Chau Van Kham, and his colleagues Nguyen Van Vien and Tran Van Quyen were arrested in Vietnam and sentenced to 12, 11, and 10 years, respectively, for their involvement with Viet Tan on terrorism-related charges. Their trial lasted only 4.5 hours, suggesting that the verdict was pre-determined. The activities listed in the government's charges against Chau Van Kham and attributed to Viet Tan, such as making travel arrangements to Vietnam, organizing leaflets for protests, expanding the Viet Tan's network, writing articles, and sending people abroad for IT training, do not constitute acts of terrorism.
In 2022, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued an opinion stating that "the deprivation of liberty of [Viet Tan member] Chau Van Kham … is arbitrary." Vietnam released Chau Van Kham in July 2023 and repatriated him to Australia. His Vietnamese fellow activists Nguyen Van Vien and Tran Van Quyen are still serving long prison sentences.
In 2018, the Vietnamese police arrested Le Quoc Binh in Binh Dinh province and accused him of participating in Viet Tan and smuggling weapons from Cambodia into Vietnam to "carry out terrorist activities." Viet Tan rejected the accusation, calling it "a ridiculous fabrication." The then-public security minister and current Vietnamese president, To Lam, praised the police for arresting Le Quoc Binh. Later accounts in government media of his trial and conviction on charges of terrorism and illegal possession of weapons dropped all mention of Viet Tan.
In May 2026, the Vietnamese police arrested Le Thanh Son and Nguyen Thanh Hung in Dong Thap province for their alleged affiliation with Viet Tan and charged them with "carrying out activities that aim to overthrow the people's administration" under article 109 of the penal code. Also in May, the police reportedly detained, interrogated and beat a former political prisoner, Huynh Truong Ca, and forced him to admit that he was a member of Viet Tan, which he denied. After Huynh Truong Ca fled, police detained his family members, interrogated them on his whereabouts, and intimidated and pressured them to denounce him.
In recent years, the Vietnamese authorities have stepped up transnational repression-government efforts to silence dissent by targeting dissidents and critics outside their territory. They have pressured other governments, including Thailand and Cambodia, to return Vietnamese citizens who fled Vietnam out of fear of arbitrary arrest, torture, or imprisonment.
Vietnamese security forces have abducted Vietnamese citizens in Germany and Thailand, including Trinh Xuan Thanh, Truong Duy Nhat, and Duong Van Thai. In the past year, courts in Vietnam put on trial in absentia Vietnamese nationals who live overseas, convicting and sentencing them to long prison terms, including Le Trung Khoa, Nguyen Van Dai, Doan Bao Chau, Dinh Yum, Siu Di, and Dang Thi Hue. Since the trials, the police have issued numerous warnings and fined Vietnamese citizens for interacting with those convicted in absentia.
Activists from Vietnam and Thailand have been forcibly disappeared in Cambodia in cases of suspected transnational repression.
"Campaigning for democracy and pluralism is not a crime," Pearson said. "The Vietnamese government should release Nguyen Duc Thuan, Tran Hiep, and Thai Cong Truong Son and end its practice of transnational repression."
