Germany on Wednesday accused Hanoi of kidnapping an asylum seeker on German soil, as Berlin furiously summoned Vietnam's ambassador and expelled one of the southeast Asian nation's spies. "The kidnapping of Vietnamese national Trinh Xuan Thanh on German soil is an unprecedented and scandalous violation of German and international law," said foreign ministry spokesman Martin Schäfer, accusing Vietnam's secret service and embassy of snatching the man. According to German media, the asylum seeker was snatched on July 23rd in central Berlin's Tiergarten park - next to the Bundestag (German parliament) and the Chancellery - by armed men. The man had resurfaced on Monday in Vietnam, where state-owned newspapers reported that he had turned himself in to authorities. "We demand that Trinh Xuan Thanh be allowed to travel back to Germany without delay, so that Vietnam's request for extradition and his request for asylum can be thoroughly examined," said Schäfer.

Source: The Local August 02, 2017 12:18 UTC