Pro-democracy activist Chau Van Kham says he wasn’t afraid of dying in a Vietnamese jail, knowing his supporters in Australia would never give up on him.
The joyous face of his most staunch advocate, wife Quynh Trang Truong, was the first he saw when he came through the arrival gates at Sydney Airport on Tuesday.
“It was like I just married her, it was like the first time I'd met her,” Mr. Chau told reporters on Thursday.
“I was so happy.
“(I said) I am very sorry, my darling, I did something wrong, but you know me.”
In his first comments since returning to Australia, the 74-year-old thanked everyone, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who advocated for him throughout his four-and-a-half-year ordeal.
“I never feared because I was sure I’m doing the right thing,” he said.
“I knew good people (back home) would help; never give up.”
He suspected a release might be on the cards last week when prison officers took his photograph, checked his clothes and asked him to list his possessions.
But it wasn’t until he met consular officers in a Vietnamese airport on Monday night that he was 100 percent sure he was finally heading home.
During a fact-finding mission, the democracy activist crossed the Cambodian border and was arrested by Vietnamese police in 2019.
A court later convicted him of terrorism, imposing a 12-year sentence.
The trial lasted a matter of hours and raised serious due process concerns.
The case was based on his affiliation with an opposition political party, Viet Tan, which operates lawfully in Australia.
The United Nations last year ruled his jailing was unlawful and demanded his immediate release.
Mr. Chau expressed gratitude for the help he received from human rights groups, politicians, media, diplomats and even some prison officers who “silently supported me”.
While too old for hard labour, he said conditions in the various prisons where he was held were poor, particularly while on remand.
Passing time watching mosquitoes, lizards and ants in his cell, he told himself to stay strong and keep a peaceful mind.
Mr. Chau’s case also had a profound impact on his family’s lawyer, Dan Phuong Nguyen, who, until 2019, had never been involved in a human rights case.
Ms. Nguyen said she could not recall how many organisations she and her team had spoken to as they elevated Mr. Chau’s case to the international stage.
“Mr. Chau has turned this suburban lawyer into a human rights activist lawyer,” she told reporters.
“It’s been a long journey, I never gave up, and we’re here today, and he’s a free man, back in Australia in the arms of his family where he belongs.”
Mr. Chau said his imprisonment has not dampened his views and vowed to continue calling out any bad acts committed by Vietnam’s one-party state against its people.
Human Rights Watch says more than 150 political prisoners remain in detention in Vietnam for peaceful acts of free expression.
In Vietnam and across Asia, human rights were facing a setback, Amnesty International Australia said.
“It’s very important that Australia, having developed this very close relationship with Vietnam, ensures human rights is at the centre of this deepening relationship,” Amnesty’s local political advocacy lead, Kyinzom Dhongdue, said.
