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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.

Death for fraud: China debates Wu Ying's sentence

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Chinese police officers
rehearsing execution procedure
It was a fraud trial involving a huge sum of money - and the verdict triggered a national outcry and a rare promise from China's top court.

In 2009, at the age of 28, multi-millionaire Wu Ying was sentenced to death for illegal fundraising.

Last week, however, the Supreme Court of China stated publicly that her sentence would be reviewed "cautiously".

The discussion that erupted online over Ms Wu concerns not only her fate, but the future of China's legal and financial systems.

She was initially charged with "illegally absorbing deposits from the public", but charges later escalated to financial fraud - and more specifically - fraudulent fundraising.

The indictment said she had raised 770m yuan ($122m; £79m) fraudulently from 11 people, with unreasonably high interest rates promised.

Wu Ying's case has been controversial since her arrest, but the High Court of Zhejiang's decision to uphold her death sentence has seen the debate renewed in the media and online.

One of the microbloggers' accusations is that the courts are applying double standards.

The same day the verdict in Wu's appeal was handed down, a court in Hebei sentenced Sun Lipeng - another businessman - to 20 years in prison for illegally raising 3.3bn yuan ($527m; £342m), according to Guangzhou's Southern Metropolis Daily.


Source: BBC News, February 24, 2012
Location: China
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