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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.

Honour killing: Death sentence commuted for 5

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CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday commuted the death sentence awarded to five people in an honour killing case to 20 years imprisonment, while acquitting two men for lack of evidence.

A division bench of Justices S K Mittal and M Jeyapaul converted the death sentence, ordered by Karnal sessions court in March last year, to 20 years without remission in the case of honour killing of a young couple, Manoj and Babli. It acquitted two other persons, main conspirator Ganga Raj and Satish, for want of evidence. While Satish had earlier been awarded death sentence, Ganga Raj was awarded life imprisonment.

Coming down heavily on the Haryana Police for shoddy investigation in the matter, the court ordered disciplinary action against the investigating police officials. he couple, Manoj, 23, and Babli, 19, had married in 2007 against the wishes of their families. Manoj, who ran an electronics repair shop at Kaithal, eloped with Babli, resident of Karoran village in May 2007.

They were murdered the next month. Suresh, brother of Babli, Rajinder and Baru Ram (both uncles) and Gurdev and Satish (both cousins) were awarded the death penalty by Additional District and Sessions Judge Vani Gopal Sharma on March, 30 last year. Except Satish, who has been acquitted by the high court, the other four will serve 20 years in prison. The HC said that their term will be without remission. Mandeep Singh, a driver, who was convicted for abduction of the couple, has been given seven years in jail. However, Khap panchayat leader Ganga Raj, who was also convicted for murder along with the other five people, was acquitted. The convicted had conspired to kill the couple after a khap panchayat decision declaring their marriage invalid. Ganga Raj, a small-time political leader and Babli's relative, was part of the khap decision. After chasing the couple for days, Babli's relatives dragged them out of a Karnal-bound bus in June 2007, brutally murdered them and threw their bodies in a canal.

Source: Times of India, March 13, 2011
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