The Australian government often stresses quiet diplomacy is the best tactic to get detained citizens out of international prisons — but in many cases, it simply has not worked.
Crikey takes a look at Australia’s political prisoners locked up abroad.
Chau Van Kham
Detained: Vietnam.
Charge: Terrorism.
In January last year Kham, a 71-year-old retired baker from Sydney, was arrested in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. After a brief trial lasting only four-and-a-half hours, he was convicted of terrorism and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Kham is a member of the international pro-democracy group The Reform Revolutionary Party of Vietnam, or the Viet Tan — an opposing political party to the current communist government. The court focused on these ties in his sentencing.
In June this year, he was moved from Ho Chi Minh City to a more remote prison in Ham Tan district in the Binh Thuan province.
Kham’s detention has received little media attention.
Yang Hengjun
Detained: China.
Charge: Espionage.
Yang is a former Chinese intelligence officer who left China to move to Australia in 2000. From Sydney, he wrote political blogs and spy novels.
On January 23, 2019, Yang was detained at Guangzhou airport. He was supposed to travel on to Shanghai where he would wait for Australian visas for himself, his wife and daughter to be processed.
Yang was held without charge for seven months until he was formally arrested in August this year on espionage charges.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has serious concerns for his welfare, with reports that he has been subjected to daily interrogations with his arms and legs shackled. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has denied Yang worked as a spy for Australia.
Cheng Lei
Detained: China.
Charge: None.
The Australian journalist was detained in Beijing in mid-August. Lei has been placed under “residential surveillance” — a type of detention which can last up to six months, with the detainee cut off from lawyers and family.
Lei anchored the state-run China Global Television Network.
The reasons for her detention are unknown, though there has been speculation that a Facebook post got her into trouble. In March she wrote a post about a magazine censored from publishing a profile piece on a doctor in Wuhan who had been punished after raising alarm about the coronavirus.
DFAT has been providing Lei with consular assistance.
Julian Assange
Charge: Breaching bail; indicted on espionage and hacking charges.
Detained: London.
Assange is currently jailed in Belmarsh Prison in south-east London. To avoid extradition to Sweden, where he was wanted in connection with sexual offences allegations (which have since been dropped), Assange stayed protected in the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK for seven years, until he was evicted.
His 50-week sentence for breaching his bail conditions ends later this month.
Assange awaits an extradition hearing, starting next week, to find out whether he will be sent to the US to face 18 charges. The counts address his dealings with former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning while a recent indictment accuses Assange of being a hacker.
Kylie Moore-Gilbert
Detained: Iran.
Charge: Espionage.
Moore-Gilbert, an Australian academic at the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute was convicted of espionage in a secret trial and sentenced to 10 years prison in Iran.
The Islamic studies lecturer has spent more than 700 days in prison since her 2018 arrest. She had travelled to Iran to attend an academic conference.
She reportedly spends 23 hours a day in solitary confinement in what’s dubbed Iran’s most dangerous prison. DFAT has unsuccessfully engaged in quiet diplomacy to push for her release.
Should Australia be protecting citizens from overseas regimes? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication in Crikey’s Your Say section.
So this we can comment on, but the appalling judicial decision regarding a cop releasing private information and getting off scot free we can’t? Pretty pathetic Crikey!
Our govt’s actions regarding our detained citizens has also been pretty pathetic in general. It might not always be their fault particularly when dealing with the Chinese, but their non-efforts on behalf of Assange has been disgusting.
Absolutely agree %110 with your comment on Julian Assange…he should be returned to Australia without delay, especially if the Brits even think of allowing his extradition to that hell-hole which is the current USA. Bloody obnoxious behaviour by our Dept of Foreign Affairs.
Also agree with your first paragraph…this publication is going from bad to worse!!
Correction – Assange did not seek asylum in relation to Swedish allegations. He sought asylum to avoid extradition to the US. A sealed indictment against him was issued by the US government in 2011 – https://wikileaks.org/Stratfor-Emails-US-Has-Issued.html
Considering our government doesn’t even protect or help you against our own government, with secret trials, raids on journo’s, law enforcement and even our own attorney general breaking laws without consequences – why would they stick out a finger for you abroad, if you don’t donate a truckload of money to you?
you beat me to it Bref – although I would have been much more critical.
This stuff about citizens breaching rules of foreign countries was until about 50 years ago not even regarded as an consular issue. If one ended up in a foreign slammer it was their problem. Even some petitions (UK) in the 19th century went nowhere.
As to Oz and New Zealand, Pell and Thomas (NZ 1970) comes to mind. With Pell the matter was never about evidence and the perjury has not been prosecuted even when the Appeal Court identified witnesses as “opportunist”.
As for Thomas, and not for the first time, the NZ police planted evidence to effect a conviction of a ning nong that could not complete a jigsaw puzzle for a 12 year old.
BTW, I don’t mean to imply that the police in Australia are not above planting evidence.
Open the comments regarding Bradley’s article and I will provide a tad more.
As an Australian citizen this concerns me greatly as this may happen to any one of us when travelling. What is the Aus Gov doing in relation to this? The time it takes is completely unacceptable; Can you (the author) find out more about just how Aus goes about this rather than just reporting it several times. Please dig deeper – thanks