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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.

India | Legality of execution of death penalty by hanging challenged

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Calling death penalty where a death row convict is executed by hanging him/her neck a "colonial hangover", an 88 year old freedom fighter has moved to Supreme Court challenging its legality.

An 88-year-old freedom fighter has moved the Supreme Court seeking quashing of a provision in the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) which provides for execution of death row convict by hanging him by the neck saying it a "colonial hangover".

Kerala-based S Parameswaran Nampoothiri has challenged the legality and validity of section 354 (5) of the CrPC which stipulated that "when any person is sentenced to death, the sentence shall direct that he be hanged by the neck till he is dead".

Nampoothiri has claimed in his plea that section 354 (5) of CrPC is against the "letter and spirit" of the Constitution and is violative of the fundamental rights, including under Article 14 (equality before the law) and 21 (protection of life and personal liberty).

"The present writ petition is maintainable as it is an issue concerning the life of the citizens, an issue touching the basic features and basic structure of the Constitution. The petitioner is challenging a practice followed, which is in conflict with the ideals and objectives of the Constitution," said the plea, settled by advocate Wills Mathews.

The plea said that such a way of executing convict is "not Indian and a continuation of the colonial hangover" and almost all democratic countries have stopped this practice.

It said that "sentencing a person to 'death' invoking section 354(5) CrPC....is in conflict with the basic structure of the Constitution of India and also the basic features of the Constitution of India, its ideals, values, philosophies enshrined in the Constitution, the Fundamental Rights, the Directive principles of the State policy, the Preamble, including the DNA of the Constitution..."

It further said, "Whether in a state where attempt to commit suicide is an offence, whether the state can take the life of its citizens under any circumstances, resulting in violation of its own laws.

Source: indiatoday.in, PTI, February 11, 2020


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