A Thai court ordered the extradition of Vietnamese activist Y Quynh Bdap, sparking fears of human rights violations if he returns to Vietnam.
On Monday, a Thai court okayed sending Vietnamese activist Y Quynh Bdap back to Vietnam, which has raised red flags for human rights groups about the risks he might face there.
The Bangkok Criminal Court said yes to Vietnam’s request to send him back, even though he was arrested in Bangkok back in June.
Y Quynh Bdap is part of the Montagnards Stand for Justice group and was given a ten-year sentence by a Vietnamese court in January without even being there.
He got this sentence for terrorism charges related to organizing protests against the government in Vietnam’s central highlands province of Dak Lak, which got really violent last June, killing nine people, including four police officers and two government officials.
Bdap’s lawyer, Nadthasiri Bergman, is working on an appeal against the decision to send him back, and they need to do it within the next 30 days.
No matter what happens in court, the Thai government can still decide not to send him back if they think it’s too risky.
“The prime minister can step in to protect human rights if he wants to,” Bergman said outside the court.
“Going back to Vietnam is a huge threat to his life, and the government should really think about that.”
Bdap is also looking for asylum in Canada and had a meeting with officials from the Canadian Embassy in Bangkok just before he got arrested, but the Canadian government hasn’t said much about what’s going on.
#Thailand: #HappeningNow – Bangkok Criminal Court set to rule on the extradition of Montagnard human rights defender Y Quynh Bdap to #Vietnam – @fidh_en observes pic.twitter.com/N7vmsasrTt
— AG (@ag_fidh) September 30, 2024
While in Thailand, Bdap was there during the Dak Lak riots, which were really violent and involved a lot of unrest at two local government offices.
About 100 people have been charged with being in these riots, with 53 of them convicted of terrorism.
After the verdicts, Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pham Thu Hang brushed off any claims that the trials were used to silence the country’s ethnic minorities.
Critics of the Vietnamese government have been pointing out the bad treatment of the Montagnard community, which is made up of mostly Christian groups living in Vietnam’s central highlands and nearby Cambodia.
Human Rights Watch has said that many Montagnards have had to go to Cambodia and Thailand because they’re being threatened, arrested randomly, and treated badly by Vietnamese officials.
“Y Quynh Bdap would be in immediate danger if he went back to Vietnam,” Bryony Lau, Deputy Asia Director for Human Rights Watch, said when Bdap was arrested.
“Thai authorities need to quickly let him go as a refugee.
Sending him back would break Thailand’s legal duties under both national and international law.”
Human Rights Watch has also criticized Thailand for sending back people who are dissidents to countries like Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and China, calling this a worrying way of working together to silence people who speak out against each other.