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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 carries out 10th beheading of 2015

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Saudi Arabia beheaded one of its citizens Friday for shooting dead a compatriot with a machine gun, officials said, bringing to 10 the number of executions in just over two weeks.

Murdi al-Shakra had been tried and sentenced to death for murdering fellow tribesman Faraj al-Shakra, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

The beheading brings to 10 the number of executions since the start of the year, according to an AFP tally.

It comes as Saudi Arabia postponed until next week Friday's flogging of blogger Raef Badawi jailed for insulting Islam, citing medical reasons, a week after he received the first 50 of a 1,000-lash sentence.

Badawi's case has sparked an international outcry put the spotlight on the ultra-conservative kingdom's rigid implementation of a strict version of Islamic Sharia law.

Saudi Arabia carried out the death penalty against 87 people last year, up from 78 in 2013, according to an AFP tally.

The kingdom had the third-highest number of recorded executions in 2013, behind Iran and Iraq, Amnesty International said in a report.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery, homosexuality and drug trafficking are punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's law.

Source: Agence France-Presse, January 16, 2015

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Location: Saudi Arabia
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