A Vietnamese blogger who vanished in Thailand in advance this 12 months is being held in a Hanoi prison, his friend and wife confirmed Thursday.
Truong Duy Nhat wrote weekly posts about politics and modern-day affairs for Radio Free Asia (RFA) and ultimately posted about the possibilities for trade-in Vietnam in light of main anti-government demonstrations in Venezuela.
All impartial media is banned in Vietnam, and bloggers, activists, and rights lawyers are robotically jailed.
The one-birthday celebration country has seen an uptick of arrests below a hardline leadership in price on the grounds that 2016, with nearly 60 placed at the back of bars last year in line with an AFP tally.
Nhat, 55, fled to Thailand in January and implemented refugee fame with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, according to RFA.
His organization and circle of relatives lost contact with him soon after, and he has no longer been heard from considering that. The UN said it does not touch upon personal cases.
Nhat’s friend Pham Xuan Nguyen said he visited Hanoi’s T-sixteen prison on Wednesday and received affirmation Nhat changed into being held there.
“I took Nhat’s spouse to the jail yesterday. I noticed the book the prison gave to her to register future visits,” he advised AFP Thursday.
“Inside the book, the date of his arrest become written January 28, 2019… It stated that he was transferred to the prison the same day,” the buddy stated, including that they did now not see Nhat.
The blogger’s wife, Cao Thi Xuan Phuong, confirmed the account to AFP, declining to comment in addition.
His daughter Truong Thuc Doan, who lives in Canada, stated she believes he changed into taken from Thailand in opposition to his will.
“It’s clear that my father did no longer voluntarily go again to Vietnam,” she advised RFA.
The instances of Nhat’s return have no longer been confirmed through Hanoi, and he has no longer yet been officially charged.
RFA spokesman Rohit Mahajan said Thursday the organization remains “very concerned about our contributor and his remedy in detention.”
This is Nhat’s 2d prison stint. He was jailed for two years in 2014 for “abusing democratic freedoms” after writing blogs important of Vietnam’s communist leadership.
Hanoi has within the past forcibly lower back corruption suspects, inclusive of a former state oil govt kidnapped through Vietnamese safety retailers from a Berlin park in 2017.
Last year, a fugitive undercover agent changed into sent again from Singapore to stand trial for divulging kingdom secrets and techniques.
