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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.

China: Four executed for drug trafficking

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Chinese police officers
rehearsing execution procedure
June 26, 2012: China executed four convicted drug traffickers and sentenced at least 15 others to death as the nation marked global anti-drug day, state press reported.

Courts in four Chinese provinces sentenced a total of 117 people for drug trafficking on the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, Xinhua news agency said.

Three Taiwanese men - Chen Tien-lu, Hsu Fu-tai and Wang Chen-tsung - were executed in southeast China's Fujian province after being convicted of smuggling methamphetamine, also known as ice, across the Taiwan strait, the report said.

Another man was executed in northeast China's Jilin province after being convicted of trafficking four kilogrammes (8.8 pounds) of the same substance, it said.

Of the 15 convicted drug traffickers sentenced to death, nine were given a two-year reprieve, meaning their sentences will likely be commuted to life in prison if they behave during that period.

"Chinese courts nationwide have been carrying out public trials over drug trafficking or destroying drugs to make people aware of the harms of drugs," Xinhua said of the anti-drug day.

Sources: Agence France-Presse, Taipei Times, June 26, 2012
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