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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.

Vietnam executes three, including high-profile killer Nguyen Duc Nghia

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The Hai Phong man who outraged the nation by killing and dismembering an ex-girlfriend was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday night, despite his pleas for mercy.

Nguyen Duc Nghia received the shot from the execution council of the Supreme People’s Court.

In July 2010, a Hanoi court sentenced him to death for the murder and robbery of his ex-girlfriend, Nguyen Phuong Linh.

The court found the 30-year-old guilty of killing Linh on May 4, 2010 in Hanoi, then cutting off her head and fingers and dumping them in a river around 90 kilometers away in Quang Ninh Province.

Nghia was watching his new girlfriend’s apartment while she was out of town when he called Linh, his one-year college lover, to come over.

After they made love, he stabbed Linh to death, wrapped her torso in a blanket and stashed it on the building’s rooftop.

He pawned her motorbike, laptop and mobile phone for VND5 million (US$240).

He was arrested on May 22, 2010 while hiding out in Thai Nguyen Province, one day after police discovered Linh’s naked, rotting body.

Nghia filed an appeal in November 2010 arguing that he did not kill Linh to rob her, but the supreme court upheld his capital sentence.

He sent a letter to President Truong Tan Sang four days later asking for a pardon but his request was rejected.

Hanoi Moi newspaper said two other convicts were also executed on the same day. The executions took place between 5-7:30pm.

Starting in late 2011, Vietnam officially switched from dispatching convicts with firing squads to lethal injections. An EU ban on exports of the lethal cocktail to Vietnam caused a lengthy backlog and drove many convicts to insanity and suicide--until Vietnam began manufacturing its own lethal serum. 

Source: Thanh Nien News, July 23, 2014
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