Tomorrow (1 August 2024) at 1.00 p.m., the Bangkok Criminal Court will hold an extradition inquiry of Mr. Y Quynh Bdap, a Vietnamese religious freedom activist and refugee, to hear from four witnesses presented by the prosecutors (petitioner). The next hearings will be on 19 August where four witnesses presented by the defense (respondent) will testify in court. The court’s decision will determine whether Mr. Bdap will be extradited to Vietnam or not.
Mr. Y Quynh Bdap, a Vietnamese refugee and prominent advocate for religious freedom among minority ethnic groups, founded Montagnards Stand for Justice (MSFJ) to train Montagnards in Vietnam on Vietnamese and international law, civil society, and how to collect and report information on religious persecution to the United Nations and international community. Mr. Bdap has helped to prepare many reports for the United Nations on religious persecution in Vietnam and these reports have formed the basis of “allegation letters” issued by the United Nations. After fleeing to Thailand in 2018, he was granted refugee status by the UNHCR. On June 11, 2024, Mr. Bdap was arrested by Thai immigration police following a terrorism conviction in absentia by a Vietnamese court related to an attack in Dak Lak province in June 2023. Mr. Bdap has vigorously denied that he was in any way involved in the attack, maintaining his human rights advocacy is peaceful and non-violent. Concerns have been raised over his potential extradition to Vietnam, where he may face torture, inhumane treatment, and enforced disappearance.
Vietnam has been a state party under the Convention against Torture since 2015, and there have been credible reports of widespread allegations of torture in the country, including the Concluding Observations by the CAT Committee in 2018 and a recent statement by Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in July 2024, which concluded that Vietnam regularly jails those engaged in the protection and promotion of human rights. In addition, the statement also stated that since Ms. Lawlor took up her Mandate in 2020, she have written 17 times to the Vietnamese government relating to the arbitrary arrest, detention and imprisonment of human rights defenders. In a report Ms. Lawlor presented the UN General Assembly in 2021 noted that Vietnam was the country where there were human rights defenders serving prison sentences of ten years. Moreover, Vietnam has been routinely named in the reports on the UN Secretary General on reprisals for cooperation with UN human rights mechanism, with last year’s report noting that several NGOs and long-standing United Nations partners refrained from publicly engaging with human rights mechanisms.
At a recent press conference, Chanathip Tatiyakarunwong, a regional researcher at Amnesty International in Thailand, discussed the use of law enforcement as a political tool in Vietnam, especially against Montagnard activists. In 2019, Amnesty International conducted comprehensive research into the human rights situation in Vietnam and found that prisoners of conscience were arrested for holding events, demanding rights, and expressing free speech. Montagnards often face charges such as fleeing the country to oppose the state, undermining national unity, and even terrorism. This indicates that the case of Mr. Bdap may have political motivation. Furthermore, this extradition request is a form of transnational repression in which governments of different countries collaborate to facilitate foreign officials to violate both domestic and international laws as Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, stated Vietnam recently sent security officials to Thailand to discuss cooperation with the Thai government on how to deport refugees to their home country as desired.
The Cross Cultural Foundation is set to submit a petition to the Attorney General and the Director of the Center for Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearances. This action is in accordance with Section 29 of the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearances Act B.E. 2565 (2022). This section mandates that “Upon witnessing or learning about an act of torture or the cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or the enforced disappearance, the person is obliged to report the case to an administrative official, a public prosecutor, an inquiry official, the Committee, or the Subcommittee assigned without without delay.” This is because the extradition of Mr. Bdap may violate Section 13 of the Act, which prohibits government agencies or officials from expelling, deporting, or extraditing an individual to another state if there is reasonable ground to believe that the person is in danger of being tortured, subjected to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, or enforced disappearance.
Additionally, during the previous hearing on July 15, 2024, it was observed that Mr. Bdap was transported from Bangkok Remand Prison in a prisoner’s uniform and with foot shackles. The use of foot shackles and the prisoner’s uniform is deemed a violation of human dignity. Acting in the interest of the affected person as per Paragraph 6, Section 26 of the anti-torture law, the Cross Cultural Foundation will file a petition with the Criminal Court to request an immediate cessation of cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment or punishment.The Cross Cultural Foundation and the Network of Human Rights Organizations invite the press, public, and civil society organizations to closely monitor the upcoming inquiry process which will take place on August 1, 2024, at 1.00 p.m., at Bangkok Criminal Court, located on Ratchada Road (Courtroom 807). Your attendance will help to support a free and fair trial for Mr. Bdap and will lend him much-needed support. Mr. Bdap is currently incarcerated in prison where his family cannot visit him. Furthermore, international cooperation in criminal cases must be conducted transparently and with full accountability to prevent transnational repression, a grave and systematic human rights violation facilitated through inter-state cooperation.
