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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.

Indonesia: Last rites denied for Brazilian death-row inmate Marco Moreira executed in January 2015

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Brazilian Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira was executed
by firing squad in Indonesia last month. Photo: Reuters
Indonesian authorities executed a Brazilian man last month without allowing a priest to perform the last rites as he waited for the firing squad.

The distressing mix-up, and horrific last minutes of Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira, were relayed to Fairfax Media by Cilacap priest Father Charles Burrows, who was supposed to be called upon to comfort the man.

"Usually there is a time when the minister or spiritual director gets to go forward to console them. Nobody consoled Marco," Father Charles Burrows said.

The account comes as the Brazilian government took the extraordinary step of refusing to accept the credentials of Indonesia's new ambassador in protest over its refusal to offer clemency to another of its citizens on death row, Rodrigo Gularte. Indonesia responded by recalling its ambassador-designate.

Moreira was executed on January 18, the last of five drug felons shot by firing squads on Nusakambangan, Indonesia's execution island that sits within sight of Cilacap.

"He had to be dragged from his cell crying and saying 'help me'," said Father Burrows.

"He actually excremented in his trousers".

The guards hosed him down but, says Father Burrows, he continued to weep "all the time up to his last minutes".

Moreira was a Catholic and Father Burrows was supposed to administer the sacrament of reconciliation and penance and the extreme unction. But there was a mixup and Father Burrows was not allowed on the island.

"I kept telling them I wanted to be there. The wardens were very polite but the attorney wouldn't give me a letter to get onto the island. The Brazilian embassy was very upset. They told me nobody went forward to look after him.

"Usually there is a time when the minister or spiritual director gets to go forward to console them. Nobody consoled Marco."

Brazil is also deeply angry about the treatment of Gularte, who is a paranoid schizophrenic, and therefore should be exempt from execution under Indonesian law.

Gularte, 42, has been on death row since 2004 for smuggling six kilos of cocaine into Indonesia in surf boards.

"This is one of the reasons why the clemency should be assessed case by case. There should not be a blanket rejection," said Gularte's Indonesian lawyer Ricco Akbar.

"If it was done case by case, it would be known that Rodrigo was suffering a mental illness. His clemency would not have been rejected in the first place."


Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, Jewel Topsfield and Tom Allard, February 22, 2015

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Location: Indonesia
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