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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.

Bali Nine drug courier and former death row inmate Scott Rush getting married to London banker

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Scott Rush
BALI Nine drug courier Scott Rush has fallen in love, is getting married to a London banker and has begun turning his life around behind bars in Bali.

And behind his stunning transformation from drug addict to model prisoner is mum of two Nikki Butler, whom he met briefly before his arrest in 2005.

Scott Rush’s marriage proposal this month was unconventional. He got down on one knee, separated by the bars of the jail visiting area. “Nikki, I love you and you love me. I think we can have a happy ending. Will you marry me?”

The pair shared their extraordinary love story last month when News Corp Australia visited Rush in his Bali jail at Karangesem, where he was happy and excited about his new life and his clear-eyed appearance was in stark contrast to earlier visits.

Ms Butler spoke from her home in London, where she works in the legal team of a large investment bank.

The 28-year-old Rush has long battled the temptation of drugs behind bars but says he trying hard to clean up his act and wants to be an anti-drugs campaigner. And he has the added impetus that Ms Butler, 38, has given him an ultimatum.

“He has got a rule, I am not marrying him if he is doing any drugs,” Ms Butler said.

The love story began in Bali when the pair met the week before Rush’s arrest, when Ms Butler was on holiday and they spent the day together.

She returned to London and didn’t hear of Rush again until January 2013, when she saw a story on UK television about a British grandmother sentenced to death in Bali for drug trafficking.

The Bali Nine was mentioned in the story and she recognised Rush’s picture.

She got in touch with him and early this year, visited him for the first time, going back again in April and June.

“It just feels like the right thing. I don’t want to be with anybody else,” Ms Butler says of her decision to devote herself to a man behind bars. She is now in the process of getting divorced and has two small children and readily admits those close to her question her decisions.


Source: The Daily Telegraph, June 29, 2014 (local Time)
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