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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.

Japan: Court orders retrial of deceased man convicted in 1984 murder over forced confession

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Prison cell
OTSU, Shiga -- A court has ordered a retrial for a deceased man who was convicted of murdering a 69-year-old woman in 1984 in western Japan, endorsing new evidence and suspecting that he was forced into confession after being beaten by police officers.

The decision by the Otsu District Court in Shiga Prefecture on Wednesday quashed the Osaka High Court's ruling in 2011 that dismissed Hiromu Sakahara's plea for a retrial. Sakahara died the same year, and in 2012, his family filed a second retrial petition with the district court.

It is believed to the first time a Japanese court has ordered a retrial sought by the family of a deceased convict.

Sakahara was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison on charges he killed Hatsu Ikemoto, a liquor store manager in Hino, Shiga, and seized her cash box.

After being arrested and indicted in 1988, Sakahara argued that his original confession during the investigation was made under coercion. The focal point of the trial was the method of the murder and whether Sakahara's confession was credible.

The family's defense team claimed it was impossible to murder the woman in the way Sakahara had explained in his confession, and as new evidence, submitted a lab result by a forensic doctor.

The new evidence showed the woman had been knocked down on her back and strangled, while Sakahara had confessed to strangling her from behind.

The district court weighed the evidence and supported the defense team's claim that wounds on the woman's body did not match the way Sakahara had said he murdered her.

The court also denied the credibility of his confession, the strongest evidence for his conviction, suspecting he was forced to confess after police beat him and threatened to harm his family.

In 1995, the district court found Sakahara guilty and sentenced him to life in prison. The high court and the Supreme Court later upheld the ruling, finalizing his conviction in 2000.

Source: Japan Today, July 12, 2018


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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
Location: Japan
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