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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.

Philippines | 50 grams of drugs ‘enough’ to merit death penalty: Head of Philippine National Police

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President Rodrigo Duterte talks with Philippine National Police Chief Gen. Archie Gamboa
MANILA -- The head of the Philippine National Police on Wednesday backed President Rodrigo Duterte’s call for the revival of death penalty, saying it should be meted out to those caught with at least 50 grams - or about 10 teaspoons - of narcotics 

The apprehension of traffickers with this amount of drugs takes “a lot of work and a lot of surveillance,” said PNP chief Gen. Archie Gamboa. 

“You cannot just apprehend somebody ta’s ma-confiscate mo na iyong 50 grams,” he told ANC. 

“Siguro maglalaro doon: 50 [grams] to 1 kilo—I think that’s enough na dapat i-impose ang death penalty,” he added. 

(Perhaps it will range there: 50 grams to 1 kilo—I think that’s enough to impose the death penalty.)

Duterte in his State of the Nation Address on Monday urged lawmakers to reinstate the death penalty by lethal injection for crimes linked to narcotics. 


Some arrested suspects said trafficking drugs in the Philippines was convenient “because there is no death penalty here,” Gamboa said. 

“The reimposition of the death penalty would definitely be a deterrent in our campaign against illegal drugs,” he said.

There is no evidence that the death penalty is an effective deterrent to the drug trade, according to a study by rights group Harm Reduction International. 

“Those studies are good for the legislators to ponder upon,” said Gamboa. “But on the side of the Philippine National Police, we believe that it is a deterrent.” 

Source: abs-cbn.com, Staff, July 29, 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: Philippines
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