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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.

South Korea | Prosecutors demand death penalty for Jeju murder suspect

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Prosecutors on Monday demanded the death penalty for a 37-year-old woman accused of brutally killing her former husband and stepson last year.

In a hearing at the Jeju District Court, prosecutors demanded the death penalty for Koh Yu-jeong, who allegedly murdered her former husband and 5-year-old stepson in 2 separate incidents.

"The defendant Koh Yu-jeong murdered a father in front of a son and a son in front of her father. ... Both cases derive from her contempt towards human life and she has not shown any signs of remorse," the prosecution explained.

The prosecution cited traces of sedative found in a bloodstain made by her ex-husband and an autopsy result that suggested the deliberate murder of her stepson as evidence supporting her conviction.

Koh was indicted for allegedly killing her former husband, surnamed Kang, at a pension on the southern resort island of Jeju in May last year. She is also suspected of mutilating his body and disposing of it.

In a separate incident, she was indicted on charges of having suffocated her five-year-old stepson to death at their home in South Chungcheong Province in March 2019.

Koh has argued that the murder of her ex-husband was not premeditated. She has denied killing her stepson.

Monday's session was set to be the final hearing before the court hands down its decision. However, the final hearing was delayed as Koh or her attorneys did not make their final plea.

The next hearing is due on Feb. 10.

The death penalty is the heaviest sentence that can be handed down by a South Korean court. 

South Korea, however, is classified as an "abolitionist in practice country," which means that the government retains the death penalty but has not executed a criminal for the past 10 years or longer.

Source: Yonhap News Agency, Staff, January 20, 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: South Korea
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