The Australian democracy activist Chau Van Kham has been released from a Vietnamese jail and returned to his home in Sydney.
“Chau Van Kham has returned to Australia a free man,” his family said. “We share the happy news that Chau Van Kham is well and has returned to his family today.”
The Vietnamese-born Australian citizen was arrested in Vietnam in January 2019 and sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment on “financing terrorism” charges over his membership of the pro-democracy group Viet Tan.
Human rights advocates, lawyers and Chau’s family said the charges against him were baseless and politically motivated and his single-day multiple-defendant trial was grossly unfair.
He had little consular access and limited communication, and the 74-year-old’s health deteriorated precipitously in prison: a 12-year term was “effectively a death sentence” his family said.
The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, thanked the Vietnamese government for its decision to release Chau.
“They’ve done this on the basis of humanitarian grounds and in the spirit of friendship which exists between Australia and Vietnam,” Marles said.
“This is a result of careful advocacy which has been undertaken by the Australian government with the Vietnamese government over a number of months now.”
During Chau’s four years in prison, his wife, Quynh Trang Truong, a pro bono legal team and human rights groups campaigned for his release.
“Please … bring him back, bring him back to me. I just want him home. Before he gets too old, before he is too unwell,” Quynh told Guardian Australia during his incarceration.
When her husband arrived in Sydney on Tuesday morning, Quynh said the family was overjoyed to be reunited.
“We wish to thank the Australian government for their care and support whilst in custody, especially the tremendous efforts by various departments in securing his return to Australia and to his family today.”
Quynh thanked her husband’s legal team and “the many organisations and individuals in Australia and all over the world who have helped to lobby for his return”.
Human Rights Watch’s Asia director, Elaine Pearson, said she was “thrilled” at Chau’s release and acknowledged the successful efforts by the Australian government – “at the most senior levels” – to secure his release.
“It’s fantastic news that Australian retired baker and activist Chau Van Kham has been released after more than four years of detention in Vietnam. He spent far too long in prison.”
Pearson said Chau was one of more than 150 political prisoners in Vietnam, held for peaceful acts of free expression.
“The one-party state has no tolerance for anyone who expresses a narrative contrary to the government, and the Australian government should continue to call on Vietnamese authorities to release all political prisoners.”
Chau was born in Vietnam and served in the South Vietnamese army before 1975. After the war, he was sent to a re-education camp for three years before he fled Vietnam by boat, arriving in Australia in 1983. In Sydney, he worked as a baker for decades, rising before dawn to work at a modest suburban bakery.
In 2010, he joined Viet Tan, becoming a key Australian organiser of pro-reform rallies and an outspoken advocate for democratisation in Vietnam.
The UN describes Viet Tan as “a peaceful organisation advocating for democratic reform”, but it was formally proscribed as a terrorist organisation in 2016 by the Vietnamese government, which said it was “a reactionary and terrorist organisation, always silently carrying out activities against Vietnam”.
Chau sought to return to Vietnam in 2019 to meet fellow pro-democracy advocates but was refused a visa.
He crossed into Vietnam via a land border with Cambodia in January that year, carrying a false identity document. He was arrested after meeting a democracy activist along with two Vietnamese nationals who were later sentenced to 11 and 10 years in prison respectively.
Chau was convicted and sentenced at his first appearance in the people’s court of Ho Chi Minh City after more than 10 months in detention.
The single-day judge-only trial, held simultaneously with four other people, saw him tried and convicted on charges of “financing terrorism” and sentenced to 12 years in jail, all within four hours.
Viet Tan condemned Chau’s hearing as a “sham trial” and said it would “continue to support human rights defenders on the ground”.
Over his four years in detention, Chau’s case was consistently raised by the Australian government with Vietnamese politicians and officials. On a state visit to Hanoi last month, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, raised Chau’s case with his Vietnamese counterpart.
