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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.

Australia: Rudd government restates its opposition to the death penalty

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The Rudd government has restated its opposition to the death penalty, after Tony Abbott said it could be justified in some cases.

The opposition leader said execution was the only fitting sentence for some mass murderers, like terrorists, but had no plans to reintroduce the death penalty.

"I have always been against the death penalty," Mr Abbott said.

"(But) There are some crimes so horrific that maybe that's the only way to adequately convey the horror of what's been done," he said, adding that any policy change would happen with a conscience vote.

The Rudd government says it has no plans to change its policy.

"Successive Australian governments have maintained a long-standing policy of opposition to the death penalty," Attorney-General Robert McClelland said in a statement on Saturday.

"Australia is also a party to (international protocols that) requires all necessary measures be taken to ensure that no one is subject to the death penalty."

Labor also wants to amend the Death Penalty Abolition Act to extend the prohibition on the death penalty to state laws, he added.

The Rudd government came under fire this week over the issue after Indonesian officials accused Australian diplomats of cautioning them against executing members of the Bali Nine during an election year.

The government maintains it never referred to the political sensitivity of executing the three convicted Australian drug couriers, currently on death row.

Source: News.com.au, Feb. 20, 2010
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