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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 | Death penalty demanded for man charged with 9 murders

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Japanese prosecutors have demanded the death penalty for a 30-year-old man charged with murdering nine people at his apartment in the city of Zama, near Tokyo.

Prosecutors demanded the death sentence for Shiraishi Takahiro at the Tachikawa branch of the Tokyo District Court on Thursday.

Shiraishi is charged with killing 1 man and 8 women, aged 15 to 26, whose remains were found at his apartment in October 2017.

Shiraishi is charged with killing the victims, stealing their belongings and abandoning their remains in coolers. 

He is also charged with sexually assaulting the female victims.

He has pleaded guilty to the charges.


However, his defense team has argued that the victims had agreed to be killed.


In demanding the death penalty on Thursday, prosecutors said all the victims fiercely resisted when Shiraishi strangled them, and this clearly shows that they did not want to be killed.

Prosecutors also said the defendant's testimonies in court are natural and logical and consistent with the objective facts. 

They said it's obvious that the credibility of his testimonies cannot be denied.

The court is expected to hand down its ruling on December 15.

Source: nhk.or.jp, Staff, November 26, 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: Japan
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