Berlin, Aug 25 (AP) A man suspected in the Berlin kidnapping of a former Vietnamese oil executive has been charged in Germany with aiding and abetting the abduction and with intelligence agent activity, the federal prosecutor said on Thursday.

The Vietnamese suspect, who was only identified as Anh TL., was arrested in Prague in April and has been detained in Germany since June, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

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The prosecutor's office said Trinh Xuan Thanh and a companion were forcibly dragged into a van on a Berlin street in July 2017 and that Thanh was taken against his will to Vietnam, where he was sentenced to life in prison for corruption.

German authorities allege the kidnapping was carried out by employees of the Vietnamese secret service and officials of the Vietnamese Embassy in Berlin, as well as several Vietnamese nationals living in Europe, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

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Anh TL participated in spying on the abduction targets in advance, and drove vehicles used in the operation, the statement added.

The 2017 kidnapping strained relations between the German and Vietnamese governments. Germany accused Vietnam of breaking international law and kicked out the country's intelligence attaché. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)