Vietnamese Ambassador confirms no Slovak involvement in abduction

The Vietnamese Ambassador in Bratislava, Minh Trong Duong, officially said to the Foreign Ministry that Vietnamese businessman Trinh Xuan Thanh had never been to Slovakia, Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) stated on Thursday after an informal EU summit in Sofia. Pellegrini is therefore glad that his words are being confirmed that the Slovak Republic was in no way involved in kidnapping this citizen outside the Schengen borders. The German media reported that Thanh, 51, was kidnapped from Berlin by the Vietnamese secret service while the country's Minister of Public Security To Lam was in Slovakia in the summer of 2017. According to Germany, Slovakia could possibly be involved in the abduction. Slovak officials have declared several times that the country had nothing to do with it.