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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 pair told the date of their execution

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Australian lawyer Julian McMahon with three self-portraits by Sukumaran: 
"The 72 hours just started", "Strange Day" and "Our new friends: A bad sleep
last night". Photo: Amilia Rosa
Jakarta: The end has come for the Bali nine organisers and others on death row in Indonesia who have been told they will be executed on Tuesday night.

On Sunday morning the family members and friends of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran made the grim journey across to Nusakambangan to visit the Australians.

Chan's fiancée Feby Herewila, brother Michael and mother Helen and long-term friend and supporter Senior Pastor Christie Buckingham all boarded the ferry.

Sukumaran's mother Raji, father Sam, brother Chinthu and sister Brintha also left to visit Sukumaran in his isolation cell on Besi prison.

They will be allowed to visit every day until the final hours when only a spiritual counsellor can be present.

Karim Utomo, a lawyer for one of the Nigerian prisoners facing the firing squad, said Andrew Chan was strong after being notified of his execution on Nusakambangan on Friday.

The lawyer did not see the reaction of Myuran Sukumaran. "Each convict on death row was called in one by one, for between 30 minutes to one hour, it varied," Mr Utomo said.

"My client (Nigerian Raheem Agbaje Salami) was notified of the day of the execution, it will be Tuesday night."

The Indonesian government has not yet officially announced the date of the execution. However the Indonesia Migrant Worker Network said Filipina maid Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso had also received a letter on Saturday informing her the execution would be on April 28.

"Both parents, older siblings and two of Mary Jane's children are in Cilacap," the network said. "They cried upon receiving the news. Mary Jane's father said he'll commit suicide if his daughter's shot."

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said it was not too late for Indonesia to have a change of heart. "I again respectfully call on the President of Indonesia to reconsider his refusal to grant clemency," she said.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo will fly to Malaysia on Sunday to attend the ASEAN summit, which runs from April 26 to 28.

Evangelist preacher Matius Arif Mirdjaja, a former drug addict and prisoner in Bali's Kerobokan jail who was baptised by Chan, said Indonesia would be remembered as a nation that killed a pastor and an artist, not drug kingpins.

"History will write that we are a nation that killed all the repented, a nation that loses empathy and compassion for people who have transformed their lives and helped others," he said.

Their Australian lawyer Julian McMahon returned from Nusakambangan, where the men will be executed, with three self-portraits painted by Sukumaran. One painting, still wet and dated April 25, carried the haunting inscription: "The 72 hours just started." The second, dated April 24, was called "Strange Day". And the third, also dated April 25, said: "Our new friends: A bad sleep last night."


Source: The Age, Jewel Topsfield, April 26, 2015

Report an error, an omission: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com
Location: Nusa Kambangan Island, Republic of Indonesia
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