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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.

China: Three executed for Kunming railway station attack

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March 24, 2015: three people were executed for a mass stabbing that killed 31 people at a train station in Kunming in March 2014, China’s Supreme People’s Court announced in a microblog post, with authorities blaming the attack on separatists from mainly Muslim Xinjiang.

Iskandar Ehet, Turgun Tohtunyaz and Hasayn Muhammad were put to death for “leading a terrorist organisation and intentional homicide”, the Supreme People’s Court said. 

A female attacker, Patigul Tohti, was pregnant at the time of her arrest and was sentenced to life in prison.

The bloodshed in Kunming also saw more than 141 people wounded and was dubbed “China’s 9/11” by state-run media.

Beijing blamed it on “separatists” from the resource-rich far western Xinjiang, where at least 200 have died in attacks and clashes between locals and security forces over 2014.

China put an estimated 2,400 people to death in 2014, according to the US-based Dui Hua Foundation. 

Sources: Reuters,The Guardian, Hands Off Cain, March 24, 2014

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Location: China
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