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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 Arabia beheads two for rape

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Two Saudi men, sentenced to death for rape, were beheaded by the sword on Tuesday [Oct. 18] in southwestern Saudi Arabia, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the kingdom's official news agency.

Fuhayd Musaffar Qahtani and Fuhayd Saidan Qahtani, were found guilty of breaking and entering, theft and rape, said the statement, carried by SPA.

The executions bring the total number of beheadings in Saudi Arabia to at least 64 since January.

Last week, the UN human rights office expressed concern over the rate of executions in this ultra-conservative kingdom, and called for an immediate halt to the practise.


Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery, homosexuality and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under the oil-rich Gulf state's strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law.

Source: Agence France-Presse, October 18, 2011
Location: Saudi Arabia
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