18 January 2012 :

in Vietnam, State President Truong Tan Sang denied clemency for a man who was sentenced to death in Hanoi, for beheading and robbing his ex-girlfriend. Nguyen Duc Nghia, 28, on November 15, 2011, sent a letter to the State President seeking a pardon, but the appeal was rejected. In his appeal, Nghia asked for a review of the indictment from the first trial, which concluded that he had killed his ex-girlfriend Nguyen Phuong Linh in a deliberate, cruel act that deserved the death penalty. According to the indictment, on May 4, 2010, Nghia asked Linh, then 26, to meet him at his new girlfriend’s apartment, he stabbed her to death, then he cut off her head and fingers before wrapping her torso in a blanket, he disposed of the body parts in different places and pawned her motorbike, laptop and mobile phone. Nghia was arrested on May 22, 2010. He was sentenced to death and was ordered to pay VND113 million (US$5,931) in compensation to Linh’s family. The Supreme People’s Court upheld the death penalty in November 2010.