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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.

China led world executions in 2007



LONDON, England (CNN) -- China executed at least 470 people last year -- more than any other country in the world, according to an annual report on the death penalty by the human rights group Amnesty International.

The group said that five countries carried out 88 percent of all known executions worldwide: China (470 people), Iran (317), Saudi Arabia (143), Pakistan (135) and the United States (42).

Exact figures for how many people were put to death in China are difficult to come by because the country considers the death penalty a "state secret," Amnesty said.

"As the world and Olympic guests are left guessing, only the Chinese authorities know exactly how many people have been killed with state authorization," the group said.

Last year, China reformed the way capital cases are handled, with the Supreme Court deciding all cases. This led to a drop in the number of executions, with "half of the cases changed to a reprieve in the end," according to an article last week in China's state-run news agency, Xinhua.

In December, the United Nations General Assembly called for a global end to the death penalty. But for now, the Amnesty report said, many countries continued to execute people for offenses that trigger much less severe sentences in other countries.

In Iran, for example, a father of two was stoned to death for adultery. An Egyptian national was beheaded in Saudi Arabia for practicing sorcery. And a factory manager in North Korea was shot by a firing squad because he appointed his children as managers and made international phone calls.

Source: CNN.com

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