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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.

Singapore: Will the president pardon Yong Vui Kong?

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Yong Vui Kong
Sabahan Yong Vui Kong's fate will now be determined by the newly elected president who is a devout Christian.

Malaysian drug dealer Yong Vui Kong whose race against time to save his life turned him into something of a cause celebre amidst a very animated media circus, has had his final appeal against his death penalty for drug smuggling dismissed yesterday in Singapore’s Court of Criminal Appeal.

Yong’s fate now rests in the hands of President Tony Tan Keng Yam who as a devout Christian will now have the thankless task of deciding whether to grant clemency to the young, impressionable Yong, who according to media reports and court documents was hoodwinked and weaselled into smuggling the dangerous substance across to Singapore.

The clemency appeal, if it arrives at the president’s desk will make for an interesting twist of conflicting philosophies and convictions.

For one, it will pit the newly inaugurated president’s religious beliefs of forswearing the killing of fellow humans through the often heard Christian precept of thou shall not kill, against his constitutional duties and the demands of high office.

It will also perhaps be the president’s first instance of deliberating over a pardon for a capital offender. Executions in Singapore are usually carried out some two weeks after the president rejects a pardon petition.

Sometime earlier this year, Tony Tan’s predecessor, SR Nathan at a press conference expressed what appeared to be as tinges of remorse when recounting the times he declined the clemency petitions of death row inmates.

Not a single death row inmate under the former president’s watch had been ever spared the gallows.


Source: FreeMalaysiaToday, April 5, 2012

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