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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.

Saudi beheads 3 by the sword

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A Saudi and an Iraqi convicted of murder and a Saudi convicted of drugs trafficking were beheaded in Riyadh on Friday, the interior ministry said. 

Fahd al-Said and Iraqi Abderrahman al-Muaissab were found guilty of causing the death of Hossa bin Abid by breaking into her home, attacking her and tying her up so they could rob her, a ministry statement reported by state news agency SPA said. 

In the other case, Saudi Saad al-Oteibi, a repeat offender, was executed for bringing "a large quantity of amphetamines" and hashish into the kingdom, the ministry said. 

Friday's decapitations take to 53 the number of people executed by the sword in the ultra-conservative Gulf nation this year, according to an AFP count. 

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery, homosexuality and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's strict version of Islamic sharia law. 

Human Rights Watch expressed alarm last month at a surge in executions, which saw 19 people beheaded between August 4 and 20 alone. 

HRW said eight of those executed had been convicted of non-violent offences such as drug trafficking and "sorcery", and described the use of the death penalty in their cases as "particularly egregious". 

Source: Agence France-Presse, Sept. 13, 2014
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