Fears Melbourne man detained in Vietnam is facing terror charges

Tran Hiep, a 50-year-old Australian activist from Melbourne who co-founded the Australian Alliance to Combat Human Trafficking, went missing in Cambodia after failing to board his flight back to Bangkok on September 18. He was traveling with Nguyen Duc Thuan, a Norwegian-Vietnamese human rights activist, to meet dissident Vietnamese activists for training. Their disappearance and subsequent alleged abduction by Vietnamese authorities has sparked international concern.

Hiep's wife, Chloe Dang, expressed her worries about his safety and urged the Australian government to press Cambodia for information. Pro-democracy group Viet Tan claims that Hiep and Thuan were abducted by Vietnamese security forces on fabricated charges of terrorism while in Cambodia, a move described as "transnational repression." In response, Vietnam's state media reported they had been detained using forged documents with intent to commit terrorist acts.

Vietnam has now charged the two men along with another alleged member of Viet Tan with terrorism and document forgery. This case highlights tensions between human rights advocacy groups and governments regarding cross-border activism and security claims.