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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 performs 84th beheading in 2015

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Public beheading in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia beheaded a Pakistani national sentenced to death for drug smuggling on May 17.

The Saudi Interior Ministry said that brings to 84 the number of executions in the kingdom this year.

The ministry said in a statement that Iftikhar Ahmed Mohammed Anayat was found guilty of attempting to traffic heroin into Saudi Arabia in balloons concealed in his stomach. 

He was executed in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.

The ministry has cited deterrence as a reason for its use of the death penalty despite criticism from human rights watchdogs.

Amnesty International ranked Saudi Arabia among the world's top three executioners in 2014.

Drug trafficking, rape, murder, apostasy, homosexuality, and armed robbery are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's strict version of Islamic Shari'a law.

Source: Agence France-Presse, May 17, 2015

Report an error, an omission: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com
Location: Jeddah Saudi Arabia
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