Vietnamese diplomat expelled from Slovakia

Slovakia has expelled one of the diplomats of the Vietnamese embassy in Bratislava in connection with the 2017 kidnapping of the Vietnamese national Trinh Xuan Thanh. "Slovakia decided to take this serious step in connection with the final decision by the German court of appeal on the abduction of a Vietnamese national, while in this case, the diplomacy ministry promised severe diplomatic consequences when the very serious suspicions of abuse of Slovakia's hospitality were officially confirmed," said the Slovak Foreign Ministry's press department. The Vietnamese diplomat is thus obliged to leave Slovakia within 48 hours. The abduction of Trinh Xuan Thanh, a former Vietnamese politician and ex-manager of a major state-run company, from Berlin allegedly happened in July 2017. The international investigation also looked into the possibility that the abduction was carried out by misusing a Slovak government aircraft.