Vietnam state TV broadcasts former oil executive saying he turned himself in

HANOI - 3 August 2017: Vietnam's state television on Thursday broadcast images of a former state oil executive saying he had turned himself into authorities in the southeast Asian country, after Germany accused Vietnam of having kidnapped him.

"I wasn't thinking maturely and decided to hide and during that time I realized I need to return to face the truth and ... admit my faults and apologize," the executive, Trinh Xuan Thanh, said in a prime-time bulletin on Vietnam Television.

"Because of fear I decided to hide in Germany, where I lived a precarious and anxious life," television quoted Thanh as saying in a signed confession dated July 31. "I returned to Vietnam and presented myself at the investigative authority."