Vietnam will produce its own chemicals to carry out the death penalty by lethal injection after failing to get shipments from the European Union, dpa cited news reports as saying Thursday. The country would start producing the poison for five prisons under a pilot programme from next year, Tuoi Tre newspaper quoted Public Security Minister Tran Dai Quang as telling the National Assembly on Wednesday. The country has not been able to execute any convicts since switching from firing squads to lethal injections in July 2011. The EU imposed a ban on European companies selling the necessary chemicals to Vietnam as part of an effort to pressure the country into abolishing capital punishment. More than 500 people are on death row in Vietnam, Tuoi Tre newspaper said, quoting Quang. Capital crimes include murder, child rape, and drug trafficking.
