Vietnam under pressure to free Australian, Norwegian activists
By Luke Hunt
October 21, 2026
Tran Hiep and Nguyen Duc Thuan receive consular assistance as rights groups condemn their alleged cross-border abduction.
Vietnam is facing mounting condemnation and calls to unconditionally release two human rights activists--an Australian and a Norwegian--who were reportedly abducted in Cambodia in mid-September and taken to Ho Chi Minh City, where they face terrorism-related charges.
Australian Tran Hiep and Norwegian Nguyen Duc Thuan are both ethnic Vietnamese and have received consular assistance. Independent sources said the diplomats were told they were kidnapped by masked men after meeting human rights activists in Cambodia.
Cambodia has denied any knowledge of the kidnapping and the source, who is close to international investigations, said: That may be true, but clearly the Vietnamese who carried this out were enabled to cross the border and transport both back without interference.
In a report, partially released by the pro-democracy group Viet Tan, Hiep told Australian consular officials on Oct. 15-16 that he and Thuan, had not tried to enter Vietnam illegally from Cambodia as claimed by Vietnamese authorities.
Hiep is observed as looking neat, tidy, and physically healthy, Viet Tan said. Hiep stated that he was not mentally well. He added that he remained terrified and traumatized from being attacked and kidnapped in Cambodia.
In another note sent to family members, he said: I want you to know that I never entered Vietnam on my own. I never crossed the border. I am struggling mentally — traumatized and terrified by the situation.
Their plight has garnered intense international scrutiny by civil society groups led by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, while prayer services have also been held by the Vietnamese diaspora for both men who are Catholic and a third, Thai Cong Truong Son.
Son is a Vietnamese citizen, and all three are members of Viet Tan, which has been outlawed in Vietnam as a terrorist organization. They have been incarcerated at B34 prison in Ho Chi Minh City.
The enforced disappearance of two foreign citizens on Cambodian soil is a brazen act of transnational repression, a group of 29 civil society groups, including Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture, Freedom House and the World Liberty Congress, said.
This abduction is the latest in the growing campaign of transnational repression by the Vietnamese authorities across Europe and Southeast Asia.
It sends a message to every activist, journalist and individual in exile that no border nor foreign passport will keep them safe from Hanoi's authoritarian reach.
Amnesty and Human Rights Watch noted that Vietnam — a one-party communist state — has a long track record of persecuting Viet Tan supporters and has abducted ethnic-Vietnamese dissidents from Germany, Thailand and Cambodia.
In 2019, Australian member of Viet Tan, Chau Van Khm, along with Nguyen Van Vien and Tran Van Quyen, were arrested inside Vietnam and sentenced to between 10 and 12 years for terrorism-related charges.
After a trial lasting just 4.5 hours, the court found they had made travel arrangements to Vietnam, organized leaflets for protests, expanded Viet Tan's network, wrote articles, and sent people abroad for IT training, which HRW said does not constitute acts of terrorism.
Hiep and Thuan flew to Phnom Penh on Sept. 15 and were in regular contact with family outside of Cambodia until the morning of Sept. 18, after which neither could be reached.
They missed scheduled appointments and their Sept. 19 flight out of Cambodia. Their luggage and other effects, except phones and passports, were found in their hotel rooms in Cambodia.
The apparent abduction and detention of the foreign nationals raises many questions about the roles of both the Vietnamese and Cambodian governments, said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
Campaigning for democracy and pluralism is not a crime, she said. The Vietnamese government should release Nguyen Duc Thuan, Tran Hiep, and Thai Cong Truong Son and end its practice of transnational repression.