World Briefing | Asia U.N. Criticizes Vietnam’s Resumption of Executions By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE Published: August 9, 2013 Facebook Twitter Google+ Save E-mail Share Print Reprints GENEVA — The United Nations said Friday that human rights in Vietnam had suffered “a major setback” after the execution of a 27-year-old convicted murderer in Hanoi this week, ending an 18-month pause in the country’s use of the death penalty. World Twitter Logo. Connect With Us on Twitter Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines. Twitter List: Reporters and Editors . The execution of the man, Nguyen Anh Tuan, on Tuesday leaves 586 prisoners on death row in Vietnam, 116 of whom have exhausted all avenues of appeal, Cecile Pouilly, a spokeswoman for the United Nations human rights office in Geneva said Friday. Navi Pillay, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, wrote to the Vietnamese prime minister at the end of July, urging that his country abandon the death penalty. Vietnam reduced the number of offenses that carry the death penalty to 21 three years ago, but still allows execution for crimes like armed robbery and embezzlement. International human rights covenants set the threshold at the “most serious crimes” involving murder or intentional killing. Vietnam switched from using firing squads to lethal injection in 2011. The 18-month pause in executions occurred after the European Union banned the export of chemicals used for lethal injections, making them scarce. Vietnam amended a law earlier this year to allow the use of locally produced chemicals. A version of this brief appeared in print on August 10, 2013, on page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Human Rights Office Criticizes Vietnam as Executions Resume. . Save E-mail Share Get Home DeliveryTry unlimited access to NYTimes for just 99¢. SEE OPTIONS » Get Free E-mail Alerts on These Topics Vietnam
Posted on: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 19:48:15 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015