Thai bully flexes muscle

Bangkok Post Editorial

2 Dec 2025

 

The government's decision to extradite Vietnamese human rights activist Y Quynh Bdap to Vietnam rings loud alarm bells about Thailand's growing role in transnational repression. On Wednesday, the Court of Appeal upheld a 2024 lower court ruling ordering Bdap's return to Vietnam, where he was sentenced in absentia in January 2024 on terrorism charges. Living in Thailand since 2018 as a UN-recognised refugee, he was arrested last year at Hanoi's request.

The United Nations and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) repeatedly urged the government to halt the deportation, saying Bdap was in the process of resettlement to a third country and remained under the protection of the UNHCR.

Bdap is the latest example of a Thai foreign policy posture that contradicts international human rights standards -- and Thailand's own laws.

Although Thailand has signed repatriation agreements with numerous governments, the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act of 2022 explicitly prohibits returning anyone to a country where they may face torture.

Yet last year, authorities forcibly returned six Cambodian opposition activists and a young child to Cambodia, seemingly to appease the demands of Prime Minister Hun Manet.

An even more blatant example came earlier this year when Thailand extradited more than 40 Uyghurs to China at Beijing's request. Last month, an NHRC inquiry into that case concluded the government had violated human rights and the principle of non-refoulement.

The broader question is how far Thailand is prepared to go to police free expression on behalf of foreign governments.

Quite far, it seems.

Consider the case of Australian journalist Murray Hunter, who will stand trial on Dec 22 in a Thai criminal court for criticising Malaysia's Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). The MCMC, part of Malaysia's media-regulatory apparatus, previously won a civil defamation case against Hunter in Malaysia in October 2024 -- a ruling he says he was never informed of.

Hunter, who lives in southern Thailand, was arrested in September at Suvarnabhumi airport while awaiting a flight to Hong Kong.

He faces four counts of "defamation by publication" under Section 328 of the Criminal Code over four Substack posts published in April last year. Though released on bail, his passport has been confiscated. If found guilty, he could face up to eight years in a Thai prison for criticising a Malaysian authority in blog posts.

This case has baffled even local journalists unfamiliar with Hunter or his reporting on Malaysian regulators. How -- and why -- has the Thai justice system become entangled in a defamation dispute between an Australian citizen and the Malaysian government? It is not hard to imagine this precedent emboldening other governments to pursue charges against their critics or outspoken foreign journalists operating from Thailand.

Worryingly, this trend is no longer confined to the courts. Transboundary repression is already seeping into the cultural sphere.

In August, the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre removed or altered artworks related to Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang after pressure from the Chinese Embassy. Once this genie is out of the bottle, the only question left is: who will be targeted next?