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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: ten hanged in Tehran's Evin prison

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November 26, 2008: Iran hanged nine men and a woman convicted of murder in Tehran's Evin prison, the Fars news agency reported.

The official overseeing the execution was quoted as saying "the woman was convicted of killing her temporary marriage husband by cutting him into pieces."

Vatan Emrouz newspaper, identifying the woman as Fatemeh Pajoh, said she was "suspicious" of her temporary husband, but gave no details.

Some Iranian human rights groups have said she killed her husband for raping her daughter.

In Shiite Islam, men and women are permitted to marry on a temporary basis.

Iran's judiciary insists that retribution in murder is a private right and that is up to the victims' families to determine whether the death sentence should be carried out.

Under Iranian law, a murder victim's family can spare a convict's life by accepting blood money. Some families have also been known to forgive a murderer without demanding compensation.

Many of the convicts are poor, making it hard to to raise the blood money, which is officially set at 55,000 dollars although some families demand more.

Also read on this blog: Petite histoire d'une condamnée à mort (in French)

Source: Afp, 26/11/2008
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