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Human Rights Commissioner appalled by execution in Viet Nam
Federal Government Human Rights Commissioner Markus Löning issued the following statement today (7 August) after Viet Nam carried out a death sentence:
I am appalled that after two years Viet Nam has again executed someone. This shatters our hope that Viet Nam would completely reject the death penalty.
This case shows that it was right to ban the export of the drugs used for executions. That at least meant that for a long time it was impossible for Viet Nam to carry out the death penalty.
It is regrettable that Viet Nam is now producing these drugs itself. A state should use its energy not to develop substances designed to kill people, but to protect human lives.
I call on the Vietnamese Government to refrain from carrying out further death sentences and to cease production of these lethal substances. The death penalty is an anachronism in the 21st century.
Background:
On 6 August 2013 Viet Nam executed a prisoner for the first time in two years. The 27-year-old Vietnamese national, convicted of the murder of a woman, was executed in Hanoi by lethal injection.
Viet Nam had stopped carrying out executions because a European Union export ban meant it could no longer import the necessary substances. The country is now producing the drugs itself. There are more than 500 people on death row in Viet Nam. Twenty-one crimes are punishable by the death penalty, including drug smuggling, embezzlement and treason.
