On Tuesday, President Andrej Kiska stated that he has had "serious talks" with Police Corps president Milan Lučanský and the chiefs of the secret services concerning the alleged abduction of a Vietnamese national from Germany via Slovakia on board a Slovak government aircraft. This follows reports by German media on Monday (July 30) that German investigators dealing with the kidnapping case of Vietnamese businessman Trinh Xuan Thanh raised serious suspicions against Slovakia, claiming that the victim of the abduction left the Schengen area and was returned to his home country on board a Slovak government aircraft. Kiska called on Slovak law-enforcement authorities to investigate the case properly. "Ought we to be finding out what happened here from German investigators? Really? This has already taken on the dimensions of an international disgrace, and it could affect relations between Slovakia and Germany," said Kiska.
According to the German police, an official meeting took place between Vietnamese Minister of Public Security To Lam and former interior minister Robert Kaliňák in Bratislava last year, and this meeting "had only one purpose"; namely to "transfer Mr. Thanh relatively smoothly from the Schengen area to Vietnam".
On Tuesday, Robert Kaliňák reiterated his belief, writing in a statement that the list of passengers on board the government aircraft provided for the Vietnamese authorities did not include a Vietnamese citizen prosecuted in his home country; and neither a patient lying prone nor a person shackled or otherwise restricted in bodily movement was transported on the plane. "However, I wonder why - if the German authorities, as they say, were really searching for the citizen of Vietnam - his name wasn't put into the Schengen information system that warns other countries about a suspected person," wrote Kaliňák.
The Slovak Prosecutor-General's Office and the Slovak police should decide whether the case will also be investigated in Slovakia, not the Interior Ministry, said the latter's spokesman Petar Lazarov. "If this happens, the Interior Ministry will provide maximum assistance to the investigators, like it's already been doing," said Lazarov. Meanwhile, Vietnam claims that Thanh, who was charged with fraud in his home country, returned voluntarily to face trial. After he returned to Vietnam, he was given two life sentences.
