Vietnam executes first prisoner by lethal injection
Aug 6, 2013: Vietnam executes first prisoner by lethal injection Photo: Vietnam has executed its first prisoner by lethal injection after a two-year hiatus in carrying out capital punishments. (ABC News)
Map: Vietnam
Vietnam has executed its first prisoner by lethal injection after a two-year hiatus in carrying out capital punishments due to problems obtaining the chemicals.
The communist country stopped using firing squads in July 2011 in favour of more humane lethal injections but was unable to import the necessary drugs due to a European Union export ban.
In May this year, Vietnam amended the law to allow locally produced chemicals to be used, a move which was widely expected to bring about a resumption of executions.
Vietnam's Thanh Nien newspaper reported online the first death row prisoner, convicted murderer Nguyen Anh Tuan, was administered three injections "for anaesthesia, paralysing the nervous and muscle system, and stopping the heart".
It was not clear where the drugs used to execute the 27-year-old man, who was on death row for more than three years, were from.
Vietnam's Ministry of Public Security says execution by lethal injections will be implemented in other places to solve the problem of prisoners with death penalties having to wait for execution following the case in Hanoi.
Vietnam does not disclose the number of executions carried out each year.
Rights group Amnesty International recorded five executions in 2011 and said 23 new death sentences were handed out that year, mainly to drug traffickers.
Map: Vietnam
Vietnam has executed its first prisoner by lethal injection after a two-year hiatus in carrying out capital punishments due to problems obtaining the chemicals.
The communist country stopped using firing squads in July 2011 in favour of more humane lethal injections but was unable to import the necessary drugs due to a European Union export ban.
In May this year, Vietnam amended the law to allow locally produced chemicals to be used, a move which was widely expected to bring about a resumption of executions.
Vietnam's Thanh Nien newspaper reported online the first death row prisoner, convicted murderer Nguyen Anh Tuan, was administered three injections "for anaesthesia, paralysing the nervous and muscle system, and stopping the heart".
It was not clear where the drugs used to execute the 27-year-old man, who was on death row for more than three years, were from.
Vietnam's Ministry of Public Security says execution by lethal injections will be implemented in other places to solve the problem of prisoners with death penalties having to wait for execution following the case in Hanoi.
Vietnam does not disclose the number of executions carried out each year.
Rights group Amnesty International recorded five executions in 2011 and said 23 new death sentences were handed out that year, mainly to drug traffickers.
Courtesy: Australia Network News
