SaS Urges Zilinka to Deal with Case of Abduction of Vietnamese National

Bratislava, 15 May (TASR) - The opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party is calling for a proper investigation into the abduction of a Vietnamese national back in 2017, urging Prosecutor-General (PG) Maros Zilinka to deal with the case, party MPs Maria Kolikova and Juraj Krupa told a press conference on Friday. "Setting up an international investigative team and requesting Germany's cooperation and their evidence would be appropriate. The Prosecutor-General could participate in this directly. It should be primarily in his interest to have this matter properly investigated," stated Kolikova. Both MPs believe the case should be handled by the Office for Combating Organised Crime (UBOK) of the Police Force Presidium rather than the Internal Affairs Inspectorate (UIS), highlighting the international dimension of the incident. "We're calling on the Prosecutor-General to take up the case again and transfer it from UIS, where the case isn't being addressed, to UBOK or the police, so that the investigation can be resumed," added Krupa. He pointed to findings in the case, mentioning, for example, that a visa was allegedly granted to the Vietnamese without anyone actually seeing him. In its response provided to TASR, the Prosecutor-General's Office stated that it wouldn't comment on the matter as the investigation is still ongoing. "Law-enforcement authorities are acting regarding the matter, and as it is a 'live' case, we won't comment on it," TASR was told by PG's Office spokesperson Jana Tokolyova. Vietnamese businessman and official of the Vietnamese Communist Party Trinh Xuan Thanh was kidnapped from Berlin to Vietnam in July 2017. The Vietnamese national was applying for asylum in Germany and thus was under the official protection of the German authorities. In this context, Germany was looking into the possibility that the abduction back to Vietnam was carried out via Slovakia and with the possible misuse of a Slovak government aircraft. jrg/df