[ad_1]
Berlin (dpa) – The spectacular and carefully prepared action in the summer of 2017 recalls a thriller agent during the Cold War era: in Berlin's Tiergarten, a man Vietnamese businessman and his lover are kidnapped on the forced home road.
On Wednesday, the Berlin Court of Appeal sentenced a Tathelfer to three years and ten months in prison – guilty of complicity in deprivation of liberty and intelligence service.
For the Tribunal of the State Security Court was clear: It was an illegal operation of the Vietnamese intelligence service, in which the 47-year-old fellow deliberately participated, if not as an idea or an organizer. "But the plan was known to him, he approved it," he said in the verdict. A confession of the last life in Prague owner of a money exchange room made the verdict relatively indulgent possible. The activity of the agent lasts up to ten years. The Federal Prosecutor's Office had applied for four years.
With an almost unshakeable expression and drooping shoulders, the accused accepted the verdict. He had expressed the wish that the trial ends quickly. The trial began in April, the man was silent at first. But he confesses to having rented the car diverted to Prague bringing it to Berlin and returning later. According to the judgment, he also authorized the command center of the operation in a hotel room of Berlin for a Geheimdienstoffizier.
The 47-year-old man was arrested in the Czech Republic in August 2017 and transferred to Germany. He is in Berlin. A witness had captured by photo the registration plate of the car of kidnapping.
Judge Regine Grieß fears that those responsible for the kidnapping may not be punished. They are in Vietnam or enjoy diplomatic immunity. Scheduled at ministerial level in Vietnam, the country's secret service has woven a spider-like network for the operation on a European scale, according to the judge.
The victim of the abduction Trinh Xuan Thanh, former CEO of a public construction company and official of the Communist Party of Vietnam and his girlfriend were spied for the first time in Berlin. According to the verdict, on July 23, 2017, five Asian-looking men jumped from the van to the Tiergarten, threw themselves on the couple, beat him and threw him in a hurry in the car. who rushed to the embbady of Southeast Asia. Against their will, they were taken separately in Hanoi.
The Federal Attorney's Office had spoken of a "state-organized kidnapping" of the Vietnamese secret services. Judge Grieß ruled: It was a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the Federal Republic. According to the federal prosecutor's office, investigations are still ongoing regarding the "theft of men on the open road". It is the staff of the Embbady and others living in Vietnamese Europe.
The case continues to weigh on relations between the two countries. After the kidnapping, the federal government expelled the official representative of the Vietnamese secret services in Germany as well as a diplomat.
Trinh Xuan Thanh's lawyer, Petra Schlagenhauf, who was a co-complainant in the Berlin trial, was relieved that the highest court in Berlin had found the proceedings against her client unlawful. She has great hopes that Germany and Vietnam will settle the diplomatic conflict and that Trinh Xuan Thanh will be free. There are indications that the Vietnamese side was thinking of releasing him to Germany. Vietnam is seeking a free trade agreement with the EU.
Source link
