Montagnard activist tells Thai court he has no terrorist links

A Vietnamese activist, facing deportation from Thailand at the request of the Hanoi government, told a Bangkok court Friday he has no connection to people who launched an attack on government offices in Vietnam’s Dak Lak province last year in which nine people were killed.

Y Quynh Bdap, founder of the Montagnards Stand For Justice group, faces a 10-year prison sentence for terrorism if sent back to Vietnam.

"I'm not the operator or the mastermind in the incident," Bdap told the judges through an interpreter. "Montagnards have many small groups. My group has nothing to do with the incident."

Montagnards is a term coined by French colonialists to describe about 30 minority groups living in Vietnam’s Central Highlands. 

They have at times been at odds with various governments that have ruled southern Vietnam over the decades and some groups of Montagnards, many of whom are Christian, helped U.S. forces during the Vietnam War.

Since then, they say they have suffered  persecution over religion and land rights.

Four judges presided over the hearing at the Bangkok Criminal Court, during which Bdap was cross examined by Thai prosecutors representing the Vietnamese authorities seeking his deportation.

In January, Vietnam charged Bdap in absentia with terrorism over the June 2023 attack. He has always denied involvement, pointing out that he has been living with his family in Thailand since 2018. 

Bdap, dressed in a brown prison uniform, told the court he had been intimidated by Vietnamese authorities merely for practicing freedom of religion.

"My home in Dak Lak was ransacked by the Vietnamese police who seized my computer, cell phones and Bible," he said. "I did not file a complaint because I feared that the police would take revenge."

Defending lawyer Nadthasiri Bergman said the judges should deny the extradition request, on the grounds of Article 13 of the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act, 2022.

The law  came into force last year, aimed at combating torture, ill-treatment, and enforced disappearances in Thailand, according to the office of the attorney general.

Human rights lawyer Somchai Homlaor, who appeared as a witness for Bdap, told the court the law applies in Bdap’s case, along with the principle of non-refoulement and other international laws.

Non-refoulement “prohibits return of a person to another state where there are substantial grounds for believing that they would be at risk of specified harm there,” according to U.N. Special Rapporteur Ben Saul, who submitted a letter clarifying international law to the Chief Justice of the Criminal Court and the Supreme Court of Thailand on Aug. 12. 

Without specifically mentioning Bdap’s case, he said there were no exceptions under international human rights law, 

‘Torture and persecute’

Somchai told the court that Bdap was considered a human rights defender who protects religious freedom and rights of Montagnards.

He said Bdap was recognized as a refugee by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, even though Thailand has not ratified the 1951 convention.

"The refugee convention prevents the extradition of a refugee to harm's way," he said, adding that Montagnards have been discriminated against and suppressed for decades.

"It is believed that Vietnamese authorities will torture and persecute Bdap, a violation of anti-torture law and related international conventions," he said.

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Ahead of the hearing, the judge said that Thailand should be aware of the human rights circumstances surrounding the defendant and had the final call on his extradition.

But Bdap said his life would be in imminent danger if he were to be deported back to Vietnam.

"I will certainly be dead,” he told the court. “Vietnamese authorities will physically harm me."

The case will resume on Monday.

Edited by Mike Firn.