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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.

Indonesia will not execute a European this year: Attorney General

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Serge Atlaoui, his wife Sabine and their son
Serge Atlaoui, his wife Sabine and their son
Indonesia will not execute a European this year, Indonesian Attorney General  H. M. Prasetyo said on Wednesday. 

Prasetyo thus confirmed that the death sentence against French drug convict Serge Atlaoui will not be carried out in the next and forthcoming round of executions.

Two foreign prisoners, one Nigerian and a Zimbabwean, will face the firing squad, Prasetyo said

Relief

Several foreigners sentenced to death for drug trafficking will therefore benefit from a reprieve in 2016. 

Serge Atlaoui was granted an eleventh-hour temporary stay of execution on technical grounds in May 2015.

"It's a relief, it's reassuring, but the fight is not over yet. And I can't possibly celebrate knowing that the relatives of the inmates to be executed will suffer," Serge's wife said Wednesday night.

Sabine Atlaoui travelled to Nusakambangan penal island on Monday, while uncertainty was still hanging over the fate of her husband who did not yet know whether he would be included in the third round of executions.

Eight executed in May 2015

"You can't imagine how happy I am to see you," the Frenchman said to his wife and five-year-old son he hasn't seen for a year.

Serge Atlaoui and Filipina drug mule Mary Jane Veloso were spared at the last moment in late May 2015. Eight were then executed by firing squad, including two Australians, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

Source: Le Républicain Lorrain, Alain Morvan, translated from the French by DPN, July 13, 2016


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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." - Oscar Wilde

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