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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.

Iraq hangs 42 Sunni militants convicted of terrorism

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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq on Sunday executed 42 Sunni Muslim militants convicted on terrorism charges ranging from killing members of security forces to detonating car bombs.

The biggest mass execution this year in Iraq came after Sunni suicide attacks killed at least 60 people near the southern city of Nassiriya, a Shi‘ite area, on Sept. 14, prompting Shi‘ite demands for tougher judicial action.

Amnesty International criticized the move, saying on Monday that “mass execution is a shocking display of the Iraqi authorities’ resort to the death penalty to try to show they are responding to security threats”.

“The death penalty is an irreversible and reprehensible punishment that should not be used in any circumstances and there is no evidence to show that it deters crime more than any other means of punishment,” Amnesty said in a report.

The Justice Ministry said on Sunday the 42 had been hanged at a prison in Nassiriya, three months after 14 other militants were executed following convictions for terrorism.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for three suicide attacks targeting restaurants and a security checkpoint near Nassiriya.

Relatives of victims were invited to witness Sunday’s executions, the justice ministry said.

“Despite all the pain inside me after losing my two brothers in the suicide attacks, when I saw the terrorists dangling from the rope I felt relief,” said Fadhil Abdul Ameer from Nassiriya.

Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate, declared in 2014 after it captured wide areas of northern and western Iraq, effectively collapsed in July when U.S.-backed Iraqi forces captured Mosul, the group’s de facto capital in Iraq.

But recent deadly bomb attacks in Baghdad and other cities show the jihadists remain capable of guerrilla-style warfare, a tactical shift away from seeking territorial conquest.

Source: Reuters, Ahmed Rasheed, Mark Heinrich, Hugh Lawson, Sept. 25, 2017


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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
Location: Iraq
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