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First Third Of 2024 In Saudi Arabia: Executions Rise By 189% And Portend Another Bloody Year. At Least 71 Currently Facing Execution.

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Since the beginning of 2024 until the end of April, the Ministry of Interior in Saudi Arabia announced the execution of 55 individuals. This figure constitutes a 189% increase compared to the executions in the first third of 2023, which witnessed 19 executions. The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights views these numbers as a clear indication of the Saudi government's continued approach towards executing and issuing death sentences, and that the promises made in recent years have become elusive.

Vinalines’ Former Executives Sentenced to Death in Vietnam Trial

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Two former executives at Vietnam National Shipping Lines were found guilty of embezzlement and sentenced to death today [Dec. 16] by a Hanoi court, underscoring the government’s efforts to clamp down on corporate corruption.

The People’s Court of Hanoi sentenced Duong Chi Dung, the former chairman of Vinalines, as the state-owned company is known, and Mai Van Phuc, its former general director, to death for embezzlement, according to a verdict read at the court today. The two former executives were convicted of embezzling 10 billion dong ($474,000) each.

The death-penalty sentences, bringing the total to four handed down in a month, are the latest in a string of cases as the government seeks to curb corporate graft. The sentences may signal a crackdown of state companies as Vietnam works to reform the state sector and a banking system weighed down by Southeast Asia’s highest rate of bad debt.

“This case became a kind of poster boy for corruption,” said Alan Pham, Ho Chi Minh City-based chief economist at VinaCapital Group, the nation’s largest fund manager. “If the death sentence is carried out, that would really be a deterrent. There are many other cases that have not been exposed.”

Source: Bloomberg, December 16, 2013
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First Third Of 2024 In Saudi Arabia: Executions Rise By 189% And Portend Another Bloody Year. At Least 71 Currently Facing Execution.

Published
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Since the beginning of 2024 until the end of April, the Ministry of Interior in Saudi Arabia announced the execution of 55 individuals. This figure constitutes a 189% increase compared to the executions in the first third of 2023, which witnessed 19 executions. The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights views these numbers as a clear indication of the Saudi government's continued approach towards executing and issuing death sentences, and that the promises made in recent years have become elusive.
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