Vietnam/Cambodia: Human rights defenders Nguyen Duc Thuan, Hiep Tran and Thai Cong Truong Son charged with terrorism in Vietnam after their enforced disappearance in Cambodia

The Observatory has been informed about the enforced disappearance in Cambodia of Mr Nguyen Duc Thuan, Mr Hiep Tran and Mr Thai Cong Truong Son and their subsequent arbitrary detention and prosecution on terrorism-related charges in Vietnam.

Mr Nguyen Duc Thuan is a Vietnamese-Norwegian human rights defender based in Oslo, who campaigns for the release of political prisoners and for freedom of religion or belief in Vietnam. Mr Hiep Tran, also known as Ho Pham Hiep Huy, is a Vietnamese-Australian human rights defender based in Melbourne, known for his work against human trafficking.

On 28 September 2026, the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security announced that Mr Nguyen Duc Thuan, Mr Hiep Tran, and a third person, Mr Thai Cong Truong Son, a Vietnamese national, had been arrested on 18 September 2026 at 9:50 pm at the My Quy Tay border gate in Vietnam’s Tay Ninh Province. The Ministry alleged that the three men had entered Vietnam illegally from Cambodia using forged documents to carry out “terrorist” activities. According to the Ministry, Mr Nguyen Duc Thuan, Mr Hiep Tran and Mr Thai Cong Truong Son “confessed” to being members of Viet Tan, a pro-democracy political party that authorities designated as a “terrorist organisation” in 2016.

On the same day, the Supreme People’s Procuracy approved the decision to prosecute and detain the three men. They were charged with “terrorism” under Article 299(2) of the Criminal Code, which prescribes a sentence of five to 15 years’ imprisonment, and with “forging seals and documents of agencies or organisations” under Article 341(2), which prescribes a sentence of two to five years’ imprisonment. According to information obtained from Norwegian and Australian embassies, the HRDs are being detained at Chi Hoa Prison in Ho Chi Minh City.

On 15 September 2026, Mr Nguyen Duc Thuan and Mr Hiep Tran travelled from Bangkok, Thailand, to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to meet with Vietnamese human rights activists. They were due to return to Bangkok on 19 September 2026. Their last known communication took place on the morning of 18 September 2026, while they were in Kaoh Andaet District, Takeo Province, near Cambodia’s southern border with Vietnam. Their relatives and colleagues lost all contact with them thereafter, and their fate and whereabouts remained unknown for 10 days.

The Observatory notes that Kaoh Andaet District, where Mr Nguyen Duc Thuan and Mr Hiep Tran were last known to be, is located more than 250 kilometres from the My Quy Tay border gate, on a different section of the Cambodia-Vietnam border. This discrepancy casts serious doubts on the Cambodian and Vietnamese official accounts and raises serious concerns that the two defenders were abducted on Cambodian territory and forcibly transferred to Vietnam outside of any legal procedure.

The Observatory recalls that the deprivation of liberty of Mr Nguyen Duc Thuan, Mr Hiep Tran and Mr Thai Cong Truong Son, followed by the refusal of the Vietnamese authorities to acknowledge it or to disclose their fate and whereabouts for 10 days, thereby placing them outside the protection of the law, constitutes an enforced disappearance under international law. The Observatory further recalls that Cambodia, as a State party to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, is bound to investigate any disappearance committed on its territory. Cambodia is also prohibited from transferring any person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that they would be in danger of being subjected to enforced disappearance or torture.

The Observatory expresses serious concerns that the alleged “confessions” of Mr Nguyen Duc Thuan, Mr Hiep Tran and Mr Thai Cong Truong Son were obtained while they were held incommunicado, without access to lawyers, their families or consular representatives, placing them at heightened risk of torture and other ill-treatment. This is all the more worrying as the use of torture and ill-treatment to extract confessions from human rights defenders and dissidents in Vietnam has been repeatedly documented by civil society organisations and denounced by UN human rights mechanisms. The Observatory recalls that, pursuant to Article 15 of the UN Convention against Torture, ratified by Vietnam in 2015, any statement established to have been made as a result of torture shall not be invoked as evidence in any proceedings.

The Observatory is also deeply concerned about the health of Mr Nguyen Duc Thuan, who reportedly requires daily insulin, and stresses the urgent need to guarantee him immediate and unhindered access to appropriate medical care.

The Observatory expresses its deep concern that the enforced disappearance and arbitrary detention of Mr Nguyen Duc Thuan, Mr Hiep Tran and Mr Thai Cong Truong Son appear to be part of a broader and systematic pattern of transnational repression by the Vietnamese authorities, aimed at silencing and punishing human rights defenders and dissidents abroad for their legitimate human rights activities. Such practices include abductions, forced returns, threats and the misuse of extradition procedures, often carried out with the cooperation or acquiescence of authorities in neighbouring countries and frequently under the guise of counter-terrorism legislation.

The Observatory recalls the case of Mr Y Quynh Bdap, a Montagnard human rights defender who was sentenced in absentia to 10 years' imprisonment on "terrorism" charges in Vietnam in January 2024 and extradited from Thailand to Vietnam on 28 November 2025 despite the serious risks of torture, ill-treatment and enforced disappearance he faced there. Other emblematic cases include those of blogger Duong Van Thai, abducted in Thailand in April 2023 and later sentenced in Vietnam to 12 years' imprisonment, and journalist Truong Duy Nhat, abducted in Bangkok in January 2019 and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment.

The Observatory also recalls that UN human rights mechanisms have repeatedly expressed concern over these practices. In July 2025, the UN Human Rights Committee expressed concern about allegations of extraterritorial enforced disappearances and other forms of transnational repression by Vietnamese officials as well as the use of politically motivated extradition processes and counter-terrorism laws to target dissenting voices. In joint communications made public in November 2025, including to Vietnam and Cambodia, UN Special Procedures warned of a surge in human rights violations of a transnational nature across Southeast Asia, and recalled that States are obliged to prevent violations committed by foreign States on their territory.

The Observatory therefore calls on the Cambodian authorities to clarify the circumstances in which the three defenders left Cambodian territory and to investigate and prosecute any involvement or acquiescence of Cambodian officials in their abduction and transfer.

The Observatory strongly condemns the enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, and judicial harassment of Mr Nguyen Duc Thuan, Mr Hiep Tran and Mr Thai Cong Truong Son, as well as the misuse of counter-terrorism legislation to criminalise human rights defenders and the transnational repression targeting Vietnamese human rights defenders abroad.

The Observatory calls on the Vietnamese authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Mr Nguyen Duc Thuan, Mr Hiep Tran and Mr Thai Cong Truong Son and to drop all charges against them.

Finally, the Observatory urges the Governments of Norway and Australia to use all diplomatic means at their disposal to secure their release and to ensure their consular access.