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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.

Several Convicts Executed In Iran, Rights Defenders Report

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The Islamic Republic has executed five people in recent days in Iran, international Human Rights Organizations report.

Ali Ashouri, a man accused of carrying weapons and drugs, and kept for twelve years behind bars, was hanged on January 6, in Dastgerd, Isfahan, central Iran, says Iran Human Rights Organization (IHRO).

Meanwhile, IHRO reports that Javad Aliploo was also hanged in the Central Prison in the city of Bandar Abbas, southern Iran. Aliploo, arrested in 2015 for carrying "shisheh" was hanged on January 23.

Shisheh (literary glass, in Persian) is an Iranian nickname for methamphetamine in the form of crystal, and relatively cheap to buy in the Islamic Republic.

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) also says that another prisoner in Bandar Abbas, Masih Hatami was hanged for smuggling narcotics.

Masih Hatami was the second suspect in a widely known legal case, branded as the "Crocodile of the Persian Gulf." The term refers to the nickname of Eisa Zamin Koofte, accused of leading an international narcotics gang.

The notorious drug kingpin, the 'Crocodile of the Persian Gulf,' was arrested in 2015 during a sting operation while transferring more than 400 tons of drugs through international waters.

In another report, IHRO says that a prisoner in the city of Shiraz, southern Iran, was also executed. Sarollah Mirshekari was hanged for premeditated murder on January 20, after spending eight years in jail.

According to IHRO, the Islamic Republic executed 110 in the first half of 2019.

As the clergy-dominated Iran conceals the facts concerning executions, the number of people hanged in the country could be much higher than the figures officially reported.

In 2018, the Islamic Republic hanged at least 253, placing Iran immediately after China, as the world's leading country in carrying the death penalty. 

The United Nations and human rights organizations have repeatedly condemned Iran for its high number of executions.

Source: radiofarda.com, Staff, January 27, 2020


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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: Iran
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