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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.

Iran: Woman Hanged in Front of Daughters

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On Saturday May 11 four men and one woman were scheduled to be hanged in the Rajaishahr prison of Karaj. They were all charged with murder and sentenced to qisas (retribution). The four men were all pardoned by the families of the victims. The woman was hanged in the front of her two daughters.

Iran Human Rights: According to reliable sources, (...) a woman charged with the murder of her husband was hanged in the Rajaishahr prison of Karaj Saturday morning May 11. The executions of four other prisoners charged with murder was stopped as they were pardoned by the families of the victims. On May 8. IHR reported about the scheduled execution of the four men.

According to IHR’s sources, the woman was identified as Behjat (about 40 years old) and was convicted of murdering her husband about 10 years ago. She was sentenced to qisas (retribution in kind: an eye for an eye, a life for a life).

Behjat’s execution had been postponed three times earlier. Behjat’s father in law (father of the late husband who was murdered) and her two daughters were present at the execution. One of the daughters was crying and calling for her mother, while the other daughter was asking for her execution. The execution was finally carried out by the victims father, Behjat’s father in law.

Behjat’s friend, Mohammad Jafari, who also was convicted of participation in the murder of Behjat’s husband, was hanged in July 2013.

Number of executions for murder charges (qisas) has dramatically risen in Iran. At least 148 of the 687 executions reported by IHR in 2013 were qisas cases. This number was eight times higher than the number f executions for qisas in 2012.

As of 12. May 2014, at least 100 of the 248 implemented death sentences in Iran have been based on murder charges (qisas). Meanwhile, at least 50 executions have been stopped as the families of the victims have pardoned the convict right before the execution.

Source: Iran Human Rights, May 15, 2014

Related video:  (Warning: Graphic and Highly Disturbing Content)
Tehran, Iran, July 15, 2007 - Iranian authorities hanged in public an unnamed woman along with two other inmates in the provincial capital of Tabriz, Iran, the daily Tehran-e Emrouz wrote. The report puts her age at 29. The young woman was accused of murder and conspiring to kill.



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