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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.

Iraqi court issues death penalty to 4 guards of fugitive vice president

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BAGHDAD, Nov. 29 — An Iraqi court on Thursday issued death penalty verdicts against four bodyguards of the fugitive Sunni vice president Tariq al-Hashimi over criminal charges, a judicial source said.

“The Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI) on Thursday issued verdicts of penalties by hanging against four bodyguards of Hashimi for their involvement in the killing of an Iraqi civil defense major and his wife along with wounding their son in al- Jamia district (in western Baghdad) in 2011,” The spokesman of the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) Abdul-Sattar al-Biraqdar told reporters.

Earlier, Iraqi judicial authorities said that dozens of Hashimi ‘s guards are accused of carrying out 150 armed attacks, including car bombs, roadside bombs and attacks against Shiite pilgrims and security officers.

Iraqi courts earlier issued four death sentences in absentia against Hashimi, one of Iraq’s top Sunni Arab officials, charges of orchestrating death squads.

Hashimi, a prominent critic of Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki, has been living in Turkey since accusations he described as politically motivated were first made against him in December last year.

Soon after the U.S. troops fully withdrew from Iraq late last year, Iraq plunged into serious political row as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki sought to arrest his political rival Hashimi, a leading member of the Sunni-backed political bloc of Iraqia, over terror charges.

Source: Xinhua, November 30, 2012
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