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Communist Vietnam's secret death penalty conveyor belt: How country trails only China and Iran for 'astonishing' number of executions

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Prisoners are dragged from their cells at 4am without warning to be given a lethal injection Vietnam's use of the death penalty has been thrust into the spotlight after a real estate tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to be executed in one of the biggest corruption cases in the country's history. Truong My Lan, a businesswoman who chaired a sprawling company that developed luxury apartments, hotels, offices and shopping malls, was arrested in 2022.

Saudi Arabia beheads Pakistani for heroin smuggling

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Public beheading in Saudi Arabia
Public beheading in Saudi Arabia
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Thursday [Christmas day] beheaded a Pakistani man for heroin smuggling, the twelfth person from Pakistan to be executed in the kingdom for drug trafficking since mid-October.

They are among 85 foreigners and Saudis put to death this year in the oil-rich kingdom, according to an AFP tally.

Saudi Arabia has one of the world's highest execution tolls.

The sentence against Ismail Khan Sayed was carried out in Eastern Province after his conviction for smuggling "a large amount" of heroin, the Interior Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

In addition to amphetamines and other drugs, Saudi authorities seized almost 18 kilos (40 pounds) of raw heroin during the Islamic calendar year that ended in October, according to the Interior Ministry.

The Gulf has become an increasingly important market for illicit drugs in recent years, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Rape, murder, apostasy, homosexuality and armed robbery are also punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's strict version of Islamic sharia law.

Source: Agence France-Presse, Deecember 25, 2014

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Location: Saudi Arabia
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