// BBC WORLD NEWS — MONDO
Rights group accuses Vietnam of abducting Australian and Norwegian activists
Nguyen Duc Thuan (left) and Tran Hiep have been detained in Vietnam in what a pro-democracy group has called an act of "transnational repression"
A pro-democracy group has accused the Vietnamese government of abducting two of its members, an Australian and a Norwegian citizen, in Cambodia and taking them back across the border.
Vietnamese authorities confirmed that they had arrested Tran Hiep and Nguyen Duc Thuan, but say they had entered the country using forged documents and planned to carry out terrorist activities.
It said the men had admitted to being members of Viet Tan, which Vietnam sees as a terrorist organisation.
Viet Tan called their arrest a "blatant fabrication intended to conceal the fact that the Viet Tan members were abducted in Cambodia and forcibly taken to Vietnam".
The group, which has members in Vietnam and abroad, said the two men had been travelling in the southern border district of Kaoh Andaet in Cambodia when they went missing and had not been heard from since 18 September.
Tran's wife, Chloe Dang, told Australian media he had been meeting pro-democracy activists in Cambodia and had no intention of travelling to Vietnam.
He was meant to meet her in Bangkok to board a return flight to Australia but never turned up, she said.
"He always knew there was a risk doing human rights work, but we never thought that this would happen," she told the ABC.
According to a Vietnamese state media report published on Monday, Tran and Nguyen were detained with a third man at the border in Tay Ninh province on 18 September.