(Bangkok) – The Vietnamese The government should overturn the politically motivated verdict against democracy activist Duong Van Thai and release him immediately, Human Rights Watch said today. On October 30, 2024, a Hanoi court convicted Duong Van Thai of publishing anti-state propaganda under Article 117 of the penal code and sentenced him to 12 years in prison.

Duong Van Thai42 years old, fled Vietnam in 2019 and was registered in Thailand as refugee by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). While awaiting resettlement in a third country, in April 2023, unidentified men kidnapped him in Bangkok and forcibly took him back to Vietnam.

“Duong Van Thai fled Vietnam for fear of government persecution,” he said. Patricia Gosmanassociate director for Asia at Human Rights Watch. “Governments should recognize the kidnapping and false trial of this democracy activist as the latest example of the Vietnamese government’s thuggish disregard for international law and the rights of its citizens.”

Duong Van Thai has been campaigning for democracy and human rights in Vietnam for years and participated in protests related to environmental rights. Vietnamese government-controlled media have accused him of association with illegal “reactionary” groups, including the Brotherhood for democracyand the Vietnam Independent Journalists Association. Between February 2019 and his abduction in April 2023, Duong Van Thai posted material on Facebook and YouTube about the political situation in Vietnam.

Duong Van Thai’s kidnapping occurred during a crackdown on pro-democracy activists under then-police chief, to lamthat in 2024 became head of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam. Security forces under Lam’s command were implicated in other incidents of repression beyond Vietnam’s borders, including the kidnapping of the former party official. Trinh Xuan Thanh from Berlin in July 2017, and the blogger Truong Duy Nhat of Bangkok in January 2019. Both were sentenced to long prison terms.