Family of Missing Norwegian Retains Elden Law Firm – Files Criminal Complaint Against Vietnam and Cambodia

OSLO, Norway, Oct. 8, 2026 – Thuan Duc Nguyen, 52, disappeared in Cambodia on Sept. 18 and resurfaced in Vietnamese custody. Not until Wednesday evening, nineteen days later, were Norwegian authorities told where he is being held and no one has yet been allowed to see him. His family has retained the Norwegian law firm Elden Advokatfirma, represented by attorneys Maria Hessen Jacobsen and Aleksander Hatlem. The case is now being reported to the Norwegian police as an enforced disappearance, with a demand that the police open an investigation.

Thuan Duc Nguyen is a Norwegian citizen and pharmacist who has lived in Norway since 1989. He currently resides in Lørenskog with his wife and two children.His father fled Vietnam as a boat refugee, and Thuan later came to Norway through family reunification. For years he has worked for democracy, human rights and religious freedom in the country he left, as a member of Viet Tan, a pro-democracy organization working for democracy and human rights in Vietnam. In that work he has been in contact with several Norwegian members of parliament and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On Sept. 15, he flew from Bangkok to Phnom Penh together with the Australian activist Hiep Tran to meet Vietnamese human rights defenders. The last sign of life came on the morning of September 18, when the two were on their way to Kaoh Andaet in southern Cambodia. Their return flight to Bangkok the next day left without them. According to the airline, they never boarded.

For 10 days, neither the family nor Norwegian authorities received any answers as to where he was. Not until Sept. 28 did Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security announce that he had been arrested along with two others: Australian citizen Hiep Tran, 51, and Thai Cong Truong Son, 46. According to the ministry, the three were apprehended by border guards at the Mỹ Quý Tây border post in Tây Ninh Province on September 18 while attempting to enter the country illegally, and it claims Thuan was carrying two forged Vietnamese ID cards in addition to his Norwegian passport. The following day they were handed over to the police. Only on Sept. 28 did it become known that they had been charged with terrorism and document forgery and placed in pretrial detention. Vietnamese authorities also claim the three have “confessed” to membership in Viet Tan and to plans for terrorism and sabotage without their families, Norwegian authorities or any independent lawyer having been allowed to see them. Under the Vietnamese Criminal Code, Thuan is likely facing a prison sentence of between 10 and 15 years.

The family and Viet Tan reject this account. To date, Vietnamese authorities have not presented any evidence to support their allegations. The two entered Cambodia legally. Their itinerary showed no plans to cross the border into Vietnam, and the border post Vietnamese authorities point to, Mỹ Quý Tây, lies more than 130 kilometers (80 miles) as the crow flies from Kaoh Andaet, where the two were headed that morning. Even before Vietnam acknowledged the arrest, the families had filed an appeal with the U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. Human Rights Watch describes Viet Tan as an opposition party that operates openly and legally in a number of countries, but which Vietnamese authorities have designated a terrorist organization.

“Thuan and Hiep entered Cambodia legally and broke no laws there. My brother has worked openly for human rights and religious freedom in Vietnam for many years, with full transparency toward both Norwegian elected officials and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” said Thien Duc Nguyen, brother of Thuan.

Thuan has diabetes and depends on daily insulin injections, as well as other regular medication. Not until Wednesday evening, Oct. 7, nineteen days after the arrest, was the Norwegian Embassy informed where he is being held. 

“We reported him missing to the police, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the embassies and the U.N. the same week he disappeared. Now we finally know where he is being held, but none of us has been allowed to speak with him, and no one from Norway has seen him,” said his brother Tony Thong Duc Nguyen.

“There are good reasons to be concerned about detention conditions in Vietnam, and about whether the most basic human rights are being respected, such as access to life-sustaining medication,” said attorney Maria Hessen Jacobsen.

A Familiar Pattern

This is not the first time Vietnamese dissidents have disappeared abroad and turned up in Vietnamese custody. In July 2017, former oil executive Trinh Xuan Thanh, who had applied for asylum in Germany, was abducted from a park in Berlin by Vietnamese intelligence. Germany expelled a Vietnamese intelligence officer, and an accomplice was convicted in a German court. In January 2019, journalist Truong Duy Nhat disappeared in Bangkok the day after applying for asylum with the UN. He turned up in prison in Hanoi and was later sentenced to 10 years. In April 2023, YouTuber Duong Van Thai disappeared from his home in Thailand, where he was a UN-recognized refugee. The next day, Vietnamese police announced he had been arrested for “illegal entry.”

“The ‘illegal border crossing’ explanation has been used before, in cases where it was later documented that the person was taken by force. When the same thing now happens to a Norwegian and an Australian citizen, Norwegian authorities cannot take Vietnam’s version at face value, especially given that no evidence has been presented to support the allegations.” said Maria Hessen Jacobsen, an attorney at Elden Advokatfirma.

Reported as an Enforced Disappearance

The family has retained Elden Advokatfirma to assist in the case. As a first step, the attorneys will file a criminal complaint with the police reporting the matter as an enforced disappearance under Section 175 a of the Norwegian Penal Code. The complaint is directed at persons who acted on behalf of the Vietnamese state, and at leaders who allowed it to happen. It must also be investigated whether Cambodian officials were complicit in Thuan’s abduction. The attorneys expect the investigation to be assigned to Kripos, Norway’s National Criminal Investigation Service, which has national responsibility for international crimes and for cases requiring cooperation with foreign police authorities.

The provision was enacted in 2019 and implements the U.N. Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. It applies to anyone who, on behalf of a state, contributes to depriving a person of liberty while the deprivation of liberty is denied, or the person’s fate or whereabouts are concealed, placing that person outside the protection of the law.

“This is a textbook case of enforced disappearance, within a framework of Vietnamese transnational repression. A Norwegian citizen vanishes in one country and turns up in prison in another. For 10 days, Vietnamese authorities refused to acknowledge that they had him, and for another nine days they withheld where he was being held. Still, no one has been allowed to see him. This is precisely the silence the law was written to punish,” Hessen Jacobsen said.

The law does not require that the perpetrator took part in the abduction itself. Anyone who contributes by refusing to acknowledge the detention, or by withholding information about where the detainee is being held, can be prosecuted. Superiors who disregard that subordinates are committing an enforced disappearance, and who fail to intervene, bear independent criminal liability.

“Vietnam’s own account does not help its case. Even if one accepts it, a Norwegian citizen sat in prison for 10 days without his family, Norwegian authorities or any lawyer being informed. It then took a further nine days before his whereabouts were disclosed. That too is a deprivation of liberty in which the fate of the detainee is concealed,” Hatlem said.

Norwegian Police Have Jurisdiction to Investigate

Norwegian criminal law also applies to acts committed abroad when the act is directed at a Norwegian citizen and carries a maximum penalty of six years’ imprisonment or more. Norway has also acceded to the U.N. Convention against enforced disappearance and committed itself to examining such complaints promptly and impartially.

“This is not a case Norwegian authorities can brush aside as a matter for Vietnam and Cambodia. The law is clear that Norwegian police have jurisdiction to investigate, and the convention obliges Norway to do so. Cambodia is also a party to the convention and has a particular duty to cooperate with Norwegian police. Under the convention, it must provide all evidence at its disposal,” Hessen Jacobsen said.

A Norwegian investigation can give the family what they are not getting from Vietnamese authorities: an independent account of what happened on Sept. 18, and who was behind it. Norwegian police can secure and analyze digital evidence from his phone such as location data, messages, travel bookings and payment records, interview witnesses in Norway, and request assistance from Cambodian and Australian authorities. When Trinh Xuan Thanh was abducted in Berlin, German police reconstructed the sequence of events using GPS data from the car, surveillance cameras, and the phone he lost at the scene.

“The traces of what happened that morning exist in phones, networks and booking systems that Norwegian police can access. The longer the police wait, the more disappears,” said Aleksander Hatlem, an attorney at Elden Advokatfirma.

“The family has a right to know what has happened to him. That is the very core of the protection against enforced disappearance. An investigation in Norway also sends a clear signal that Norwegian citizens cannot be picked up in a third country and taken across a border without consequences and accountability,” he continued. “Nor can Norwegian citizens be held in custody without basic due process, or without Norwegian authorities being informed where they are being held.”

Calls on Norwegian Authorities to Demand Access

Alongside the criminal complaint, the family is asking the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure that someone from the Norwegian side sees Thuan immediately ,not next week, and to demand of Vietnam that he receive necessary medical care and access to a lawyer of his own choosing.

“We are grateful for the support the family has received from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the embassies so far, and we trust that Norwegian authorities will keep pushing until the case is resolved. But we need to know immediately that he is in good health, that he is receiving the care he needs, and that someone from the Norwegian side gets to see him,” said Thien Duc Nguyen.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has personally and publicly addressed the case, saying the government is engaging directly with Hiep Tran’s family. In Norway, the case has so far been handled and commented on by civil servants at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The family believes the ministry should demand answers from Vietnam’s ambassador to Norway, Le Thi Thu.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has dealt properly with the family, and we know the embassy in Hanoi is working on the case. But when a Norwegian citizen has been abducted and held at an undisclosed location for nineteen days, the message must come from the highest political level. Australia’s prime minister has been clear. The family expects the same clarity from Norway’s political leadership, and they need proof of life, not just confirmation of where he is imprisoned. Once Vietnam finally allows a visit, that visit cannot wait a week because of staff vacation at the embassy,” Hessen Jacobsen said.

RETTELSE 09.10.2026:

Følgende ble rettet da det baserte seg på en misforståelse:

Fjerne følgende setninger:

“«Ambassaden har fått tilsagn om å besøke ham, men de har ikke kapasitet til å gjennomføre det før til uken grunnet ferieavvikling ved ambassaden.»
“«Når Vietnam først åpner for et besøk, kan ikke besøket vente en uke på grunn av ferieavvikling ved ambassaden, sier Hessen Jacobsen.»”

Følgende sitat er endret:
«Parallelt med anmeldelsen ber familien Utenriksdepartementet om å jobbe for at noen fra norsk side får møte Thuan umiddelbart, og om å kreve av Vietnam at han får nødvendig medisinsk oppfølging og tilgang til advokat etter eget valg.»

CORRECTTION 9 Oct 2026:

The following was corrected as it was based on a misunderstanding:

The following has been removed:

«The embassy has been granted permission to visit him, but does not have the capacity to do so until next week because of staff vacation at the embassy.»
«Once Vietnam finally allows a visit, that visit cannot wait a week because of staff vacation at the embassy,” Hessen Jacobsen said.»

The following has been edited:

«Alongside the criminal complaint, the family is asking the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure that someone from the Norwegian side is allowed to see Thuan immediately, and to demand of Vietnam that he receive necessary medical care and access to a lawyer of his own choosing.»