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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.

Judicial review into Bali Nine pair 'would not stop executions': Attorney-General

A judicial review into the condemned Bali Nine members filed on Friday would not stop executions proceeding, according to a spokesman for Indonesian Attorney-General H.M Prasetyo.

Tony Spontana accused lawyers for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran of trying to delay the executions by filing out an application for a case review, known as a PK.

"Since the norm is that the PK will not stop the execution we hope that the judges in the Denpasar District Court will reject it," he told a press conference.

Mr Spontana said a meeting on January 9 attended by representatives from the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court and other agencies had agreed that there could only be one judicial review of a case.

No decision had been made on who would be included in the second round of executions of felons in Indonesia this year.

It had also not been finalised where or when they would be held.

However Mr Spontana said two Australians were among 11 convicts who had lost their clemency pleas and would face the firing squad.

Chan and Sukumaran had their clemency pleas rejected by Indonesian President Joko Widodo earlier this month.

Mr Spontana said the Attorney-General's office was still evaluating the first round of executions, in which six drug felons - five of whom were foreigners - were shot dead on January 18.

He said problems had included delays in the timing of the executions and the convicts changing their last wishes, such as where they wanted to be buried and their religion.

The Melbourne lawyer for chan and Sukumaran, Julian McMahon, said the focus of the judicial review, which had been filed in the courts, was on rehabilitation.

"The matter is now before the courts according to the rule of law which is a very important thing to understand," he said.

"My clients have now been in jail for 10 years and slowly with the help of the Indonesian jail system their lives have been turned around and improved greatly.

"They are a wonderful example of what can happen in the jail system. Obviously there is no advantage to anybody in executing reformed prisoners."

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, January 30, 2015

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