LKY School graduate arrested in Vietnam ‘regrets’ breaking law, Latest World News - The New Paper
World

LKY School graduate arrested in Vietnam ‘regrets’ breaking law

This article is more than 12 months old

An American student accused of involvement in anti-government protests in Vietnam did not have any intention to engage in violent activities and was probably caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, his friends said yesterday.

Their comments came a day after Mr William Nguyen, 32, appeared on Vietnamese state television expressing regret for breaking the law and promising to stay away from future rallies.

The graduate student of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) was detained in Ho Chi Minh City on June 10 after attending mass demonstrations against draft laws to develop special economic zones which would grant investors 99-year leases.

Protesters feared the land would end up in the hands of China, with which Vietnam has a fraught relationship.

A close friend of Mr Nguyen, Ms Inkar Aitkuzhina, 24, said he had just wanted to "be a witness of the democratic process in Vietnam".

"He really loves Vietnam, and I don't believe he went there with the intent to do anything wrong or violent," she said of Mr Nguyen, a US citizen who was born and raised in Texas.

He was there on vacation before his July graduation from LKYSPP.

On the day of the protest, he posted that chaos had broken out after the police struck a protester.

Later, video footage online showed him with a bloodied head and being dragged by men in plainclothes through the streets, before he was taken into custody.

AFP subsequently reported that he had made a televised confession in TV footage provided by the city police.

Human Rights Watch Asia division deputy director Phil Robertson said: "Given that he has given a confession that was likely extracted under duress, I expect that Vietnam will likely release and deport him, and unfortunately blacklist him from ever entering the country again."

WORLD