Brontekst bekijken van Prague agrees to hand Vietnamese kidnapper to Germany

Trinh Xuan Thanh speaks in a clip aired by Vietnam's state [http://Www.renewableenergyworld.com/_search?q=television television] VTV, in Hanoi on August 4, 2017<br><br>Czech authorities have agreed to extradite to Germany a Vietnamese national wanted over the alleged kidnapping in Berlin last month of an oil tycoon who subsequently turned up in Vietnam, local media reported Wednesday.<br><br>According to German media, 51-year-old Vietnamese oil tycoon Trinh Xuan Thanh -- who was in Germany seeking asylum, but sought by Hanoi for allegedly causing huge losses to a state-run company -- was snatched by armed men on July 23 in Berlin's Tiergarten park.<br><br>A Prague court ordered the extradition of a suspected kidnapper, identified only as a 46-year-old Vietnamese national, on August 15, the Czech CTK news agency reported Wednesday.<br><br>"We took the decision (extradition) on the basis of a European arrest warrant," court spokeswoman Marketa Puci told AFP, but declined to provide further details about the suspect's identity.<br><br>Trinh resurfaced in Vietnam on July 31, where state-owned newspapers reported that he had turned himself in to authorities.<br><br>Once a lawmaker, he was stripped of his seat and kicked out of the communist party.<br><br>According to German news agency DPA, he has been accused of having caused losses amounting to 125 million euros ($148 million) at PetroVietnam Construction (PVC), a subsidiary of the country's largest state-run oil conglomerate.<br><br>The alleged kidnapping has caused a diplomatic rift between Germany and Vietnam, with Berlin summoning Vietnam's ambassador and expelling one of the southeast Asian nation's spies earlier this month.<br><br>Germany foreign ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said at the time that Hanoi's actions marked a "breach of trust" as talks had been underway during the G20 summit of world leaders in Hamburg about a "possible extradition in a legal manner".<br><br>"We demand that Trinh Xuan [http://vanphongcongchung.vn/ công chứng ở thanh xuân] 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 Schaefer.<br><br>Thanh is one of the highest ranking officials to be sought by the communist government in recent years, as the administration wages an anti-corruption drive to polish its image and clean up bloated state enterprises.<br><br>Vietnam's administration in place since last April has vowed to crack down on endemic corruption and clean up its vast and inefficient state-run sector.<br><br>But analysts say punishments are often the result of political infighting rather than a genuine commitment to reform.<br><br>Transparency International ranks Vietnam 113 out of 176 on its 2016 corruption index, worse than its Southeast Asian neighbours Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia.