AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL UK – URGENT ACTION: LETHAL INJECTION LOOMS FOR 117 PRISONERS

Amnesty International UK

UA: 161/13 Index: ASA 41/003/2013 Vietnam Date: 24 June 2013

Some 117 death row prisoners in Viet Nam have exhausted their appeals and will face imminent execution when a change in the law comes into effect on 27 June. There are more than 530 prisoners under sentence of death.

The authorities in Viet Nam amended the Law for Enforcement of Criminal Verdicts in June 2010, to change the method of execution from firing squad to lethal injection, on the grounds that it was more humane. A shortage of drugs for use in lethal injections has meant a delay in implementation of the law, and this has resulted in no executions being carried out since January 2012. However, the courts have continued to impose death sentences.

The shortage of lethal injection drugs followed changes made in 2011 to European Union (EU) regulations on trade in equipment and substances which can be used for capital punishment, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, adding barbiturate anaesthetic agents to the list of articles requiring an export authorization.

The Viet Nam authorities changed the law again in May 2013, so that drugs sourced from outside the EU or manufactured in-country could be used in lethal injections. The amended law comes into effect on 27 June. The Minister of Public Security has said that 117 death row prisoners will be executed immediately, using drugs manufactured in Viet Nam.

Since the change in the method of execution, Viet Nam has built facilities around the country and trained staff to administer lethal injections. In 2012, more than 86 death sentences were imposed, two of them for embezzlement.

Please write immediately in Vietnamese, English or your own language:

• Demanding that the authorities immediately halt any plans to resume executions, the ultimate form of cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment and a violation of the right to life, protected in international human rights law;
• Calling on them to immediately establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolition of the death penalty, in line with four UN General Assembly resolutions adopted since 2007, including resolution 67/176 on 20 December 2012;
• Calling on them, in the meantime, to commute all death sentences and reduce the number of offences punishable by the death penalty.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 5 AUGUST 2013 TO:

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Minister of Public Security

Lt Gen Tran Dai Quang

Ministry of Public Security

44 Yet Kieu Street, Hoan Kiem District

Ha Noi, Viet Nam

Fax: +844 3942 0223

Online contact form: http://www.mps.gov.vn/web/guest/contact_english

Salutation: Dear Minister

 

Chairman of the National Assembly

Nguyen Sinh Hung

Office of the National Assembly

35 Ngo Quyen St, Hoan Kiem District

Ha Noi, Viet Nam

Online contact form: http://www.na.gov.vn/htx/English/C1330/

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Salutation: Dear National Assembly Chairman

 

And copies to:

Minister of Foreign Affairs

Pham Binh Minh

Minister of Foreign Affairs

1 Ton That Dam Street

Ba Dinh District, Ha Noi, Viet Nam

Fax: +844 3823 1872

Email: bc.mfa@mofa.gov.vn

 

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Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country.

Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.

 

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URGENT ACTION

LETHAL INJECTION LOOMS FOR 117 PRISONERS

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Viet Nam’s National Assembly held discussions in November 2012 over how to resolve the situation of an increasing number of prisoners awaiting execution. It was claimed that this was causing overcrowding in difficult prison conditions, with three prisoners having committed suicide and others allegedly requesting that they be executed soon. Some National Assembly members advocated returning to using the firing squad.

Viet Nam retains the death penalty for 21 offences, including violent crimes, national security offences, drug trafficking and embezzlement. In January 2010, the number of capital offences was reduced from 29, but moves towards a further reduction appear to have stalled.

Statistics on the death penalty have been classified as a “state secret” since January 2004, and there is a general lack of transparency over its application. No information is publicly available on who is currently awaiting execution and for what crimes. State-controlled media report on some death sentences, enabling a minimum level of monitoring of the use of the death penalty in the country. However the total and accurate figures are not available. Government officials publicly stated that the number of prisoners under sentence of death was higher than 530 in January 2013, when discussions were underway on how to resume executions.

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Gender m/f: both

Source: Amnesty International UK

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Stop Vietnam executing 117 prisoners

As I type this, there are still a few hours left of Wednesday 26 June in Vietnam. Those are a final few hours of sanctity for some 117 prisoners on Vietnam’s death row. As of midnight tonight, a new law comes into effect which will mean that those 117 lives will soon be cut short by Vietnamese authorities. For today they are safe, but time is running out.

[stextbox id=”info”]Text VIETNAM and your full name to 70505 to ask the authorities to stop the executions. Over 14s only please. Prefer not to text?[/stextbox]

Vietnam is poised to execute

From tomorrow, an amendment to Vietnamese law passed by the country’s National Assembly just last month will mean that death row prisoners can be given lethal injections with drugs produced outside of Europe, including those made in Vietnam.

The scene is set: authorities have built facilities for executing with lethal injections and trained staff to administer the drugs. And as of midnight tonight, they will legally be able to do so.

The authorities plan a mass killing. Vietnam’s Minister of Public Security told Congress just last week that 117 men and women on death row who have exhausted their legal appeals will be executed immediately. That is a fifth of the 530+ prisoners sentenced to execution.  We are extremely concerned that more deaths are planned, after National Assembly discussions around how to ‘resolve the situation’ of increasing numbers of prisoners facing execution. But the executions don’t have to go ahead. Text to ask Vietnam to respect human rights and refrain from executing.

Executions pending for alleged drugs traffickers and embezzlers

Use of the death penalty in Vietnam has been classed as a state secret for the last decade. But we know that death sentences continue to be handed out, and 86 people were sentenced to death last year alone.

The people on death row? Some of them are there on convictions of embezzlement, for trafficking drugs, for national security offences – none of which are considered ‘serious crimes’ punishable by death, under international laws around use of the death penalty for states that continue to execute, and so contravene international law.

Delayed thanks to an EU law that you campaigned for

Right after the execution of Troy Davis in Georgia, USA – a death that shone an international spotlight on the unjust nature of the death penalty – Pentobarbital, the drug that was used to kill Troy, was banned from being exported from its Danish production base wherever it was deemed that the drug would be used to execute or torture, or contribute to cruel inhuman or degrading treatment. The manufacturers of Pentobarbital, a drug created to treat epilepsy, were happy with this. We were thrilled.

Until this time, a loophole in European law had meant that products not intended to cause death or harm could still be bought by states intending to use them to execute or torture. But in November 2011 European law was extended to prevent many kinds of EU-produced equipment, including ‘all short and intermediate acting barbiturate anaesthetic agents, including those which are not explicitly mentioned’, from being exported where they are deemed to be used ‘for capital punishment, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’. And so Vietnam’s nominated execution method was in short supply.

Without a lethal drug supply from Europe, Vietnam refrained from killing its death row prisoners. The last known execution took place over a year ago, in January 2012.

[stextbox id=”info”]Ask that Vietnam doesn’t take a step backwards and resume executions – text VIETNAM and your full name to 70505. Over 14s only please. Prefer not to text?[/stextbox]

Why change the law?

Just last month, Vietnamese authorities voted through a law allowing drugs for lethal injections to be sourced from non-European countries, following a shortage of available drugs after the 2011 change in EU law. Vietnam has reportedly produced its own lethal drugs to carry out the executions.

Lethal injection is the only legal method of execution in Vietnam. Up until three years ago, prisoners sentenced to death in Vietnam were shot by firing squad, a method that was superseded by lethal injection as an apparently ‘more humane’ way of executing (there are unconfirmed reports of traumatised shooters).

But the clinical appearance and medical associations of lethal injections belie a grotesque and painful death: the three-stage method of execution commonly used involves a sedative (which doesn’t always anaesthetise as intended), a paralysing drug (which can take effect even when the anaesthetic hasn’t – trapping a conscious individual in a state of paralysis), then a heart-stopping concoction (by which time the anaesthetic may have worn off, and a cardiac arrest suffered in horrendous pain).

Whatever the method used to execute, the death penalty is the ultimate irreversible, cruel and degrading punishment, which violates two basic human rights – the right to life, and the right not to be subjected to torture and inhuman treatment. Remind Vietnam’s authorities that they are bound to protect life and refrain from torturing under the international human rights laws they’ve signed up to.

[stextbox id=”info”]Text VIETNAM and your full name to 70505 to ask the authorities to stop the executions. Over 14s only please. Prefer not to text?[/stextbox]

What happens to my text?

We will add your name, but not your phone number, to a co-signed letter which we will send to the Minister of Public Security, the Chairman of the National Assembly and the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Vietnam. We’ll also send a copy to Vietnam’s Ambassador in the UK.

The letter calls on the authorities to

• Immediately halt plans to resume executions
• Establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolish the death penalty
• Commute all death sentences and reduce the number of offences punishable by the death penalty.

Not in the UK? We’re sorry but our text action won’t work for you as SMS short codes are different in each country. You can still send a letter or fax.

Under 18? We need to ensure you receive appropriate communications. Please include your date of birth in your text in the following format: DD/MM/YYYY

*Texts charged at standard network rate, no more than 10p. Please ask bill-payers permission. By giving us your number you agree to future communication from us by SMS. To unsubscribe, text STOP to 70505 at any time. See full terms and conditions

Prefer not to text?

You can fill out an online form, fax or write to the authorities in Vietnam. Contact details are in the above letter.

Source: Amnesty International UK

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