One of Vietnam's most senior police officers spoke...

One of Vietnam's most senior police officers spoke out against the death penalty, saying statistics show it does nothing to cut crime.
"I agree with the view that it is necessary to have punishments less severe than the death penalty," Major General Pham Chuyen was quoted as saying by the official Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.
"In fact, it does not cause crime to drop, nor scare people. I think, the highest and most severe punishment should be to abolish citizenship."
Chuyen said corruption cases should be dealt with with fines.
His comments came amid a debate in Vietnam's National Assembly about legal reform, including court procedures and punishments.
Vietnam's method of carrying out the death penalty - seven-men firing squads - has come in for criticism from both advocates and opponents of capital punishment.
Prime Minister Phan Van Khai has ordered the Public Security Ministry to review the method of execution and provide a report by the year-end.
The death penalty is handed down in Vietnam for murder, trafficking in more than 600 grams of heroin and corruption involving theft of 500 million dong ($32,980) or more of state property.
About 100 people face the firing squad in Vietnam every year. [According to the Vietnam News Brief Service the country hands down around 200 death sentences every year]. In 2001 55 people were handed death sentences for drug-related offences.
In January 1999, Khai was quoted by local media as saying he wanted fewer death penalties handed down and he had asked police to find an alternative punishments. He said then he disliked the use of firing squads.
Tuoi Tre quoted Dong Thi Anh, the chief judge of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court, as saying lethal injections were "the most feasible method" of execution as they were less expensive and less painful.
The paper also quoted the director of the National Assembly's Law Committee, Vu Duc Khien, as saying that carrying out executions caused psychological damage to members of firing squads."So we should not carry out death penalty in such a way," he said. "Probably, people will support the idea to look for an alternative way."