Australian retiree accused of terrorism freed from prison in Vietnam

A retired baker has returned home to Sydney after being released from prison in Vietnam, where he was serving 12 years on terrorism charges for being a member of a banned pro-democracy group.

Acting Australian Prime Minister Richard Marles said Chau Van Kham was released on humanitarian grounds and “in the spirit of friendship” between Australia and Vietnam.

“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,” Marles said Tuesday.

Kham, a 74-year-old Australian-Vietnamese national, was arrested in 2019 hours after arriving in Vietnam where he met a fellow pro-democracy activist, according to Amnesty International.

“The only evidence for this charge presented by the Vietnamese authorities during the trial was his membership with Viet Tan, an organization that the Vietnamese government lists as a ‘terrorist group,” Amnesty said in a statement.

Read more: CNN