BANGKOK (AP) — Thai authorities have extradited a Vietnamese activist who had been detained in Bangkok since last year, despite concerns from rights groups that he could be in danger if sent back to Vietnam.
U Quynh Bdap, who helped found a group that advocates for the rights of Vietnamese ethnic minorities, was handed over to Vietnamese authorities on Friday and his whereabouts are now unknown, his lawyer Nadtasiri Bergman told The Associated Press on Monday.
“He disappeared from the custody of Thai authorities on Friday and at this point we still do not know his whereabouts,” Nadtasiri said. “This is a clear violation of Thai laws prohibiting torture and enforced disappearance.”
The Royal Thai Police did not immediately respond to requests to extradite Bdap.
On Friday, the Department of Correctional Services said it had handed Bdap over from a Bangkok prison to police after the Court of Appeal upheld a lower court's order to extradite him to Vietnam in 2024.
Bdap is the 33-year-old co-founder of the group Montagnards Stand for Justice. Vietnam has long been criticized by human rights groups for its treatment of the Montagnard minority, a term widely used to describe several predominantly Christian ethnic groups living in the central highlands of Vietnam and neighboring Cambodia.
The activist was accused of organizing anti-government riots in Vietnam's central mountainous province of Dak Lak in 2023, during which nine people were killed, including four police officers and two government officials.
Bdap denied the accusations, saying in a video released shortly before his arrest that he had “nothing to do with this brutal incident.”
“I am a human rights activist who fights for religious freedom and protects the rights of people,” he said. “My activities are peaceful and consist only of collecting and writing reports on human rights violations in Vietnam.”
Bdap fled to Thailand after being alerted that Vietnamese authorities were investigating him, but he was detained in Bangkok in June 2024, according to his lawyer. In January, he was convicted in absentia in Vietnam on terrorism charges and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
In total, around 100 people were convicted for their alleged involvement in the riots, while 53 were convicted on terrorism charges.
Days after the verdict, Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman Pham Thu Hang rejected criticism that Vietnam was using the trial as an opportunity to crack down on ethnic minorities.
Human Rights Watch has criticized Thailand for deporting dissidents with uncertain fates to Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and China, a practice it describes as a form of transnational repression in exchange for which other countries send back dissidents wanted by Thailand.
“It is appalling that Thailand has chosen to assist Vietnam in its repression of human rights activists. Transnational repression has become a stain on Thailand's human rights record, especially as a current member of the UN Human Rights Council,” said Sunai Phasuk, Asia adviser at Human Rights Watch.
