BANGKOK – A Vietnamese activist who was granted refugee status by the UN has been extradited by Thailand to Vietnam where he faces a decade in prison, his lawyer said Monday.
A Thai appeal court ruled last week to allow the extradition of Y Quynh Bdap, who had lived in exile in Thailand since 2018.
A Vietnamese court sentenced him in absentia in Jan. 2024 for terrorism offenses.
Bdap was convicted for remotely orchestrating 2023 attacks in which gunmen on motorbikes opened fire on two police posts in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, killing nine people in a rare act of violence against the communist authorities. He has denied the allegations.
“Thai immigration said Bdap was handed over to Vietnamese officials without giving further details. We have no news about his fate,” his lawyer Nadthasiri Bergman told AFP.
The handover happened on Friday, she said.
A spokesman for the Thai immigration department could not be immediately reached on Monday. AFP
The Thai corrections department said in a statement on Friday that it had coordinated with Thai police to transfer Y Quynh Bdap back to Vietnam.
Bdap was granted refugee status by the United Nations but he had been detained in a Bangkok prison since December when he was jailed for staying in the country without proper travel documents.
UN-affiliated experts warned last year that Bdap would be at risk of “torture or other ill-treatment or punishment” if sent back to Vietnam.
Sunai Phasuk, an adviser at Human Rights Watch, wrote on X that Bdap was extradited “despite concerns from the UN, human rights groups, Thailand’s National Human Rights Commission, and western governments that he will face unjust prosecution, including 10 years prison term.” AFP
