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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.

German central bank pulls out of Bangladesh cooperation over plans to execute counterfeiters

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FRANKFURT, Germany – Germany's central bank is shelving plans to help fight currency counterfeiting in Bangladesh because of reports the country is planning to include execution among the possible punishments for violators.

The Bundesbank said it wouldn't move ahead with its offer of consultation and training to the central bank of Bangladesh, after media reports about the proposals.

The Bundesbank said Thursday that while it "believes that counterfeiting is a serious criminal offence, it considers the threat of imposing the death penalty to be excessive."

It said it didn't know of the proposals when it agreed to the project, which was to start next month. It said it would not participate unless the plans are definitively dropped.

Source: Associated Press, January 17, 2013

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