Top 10 Countries With HARSH Punishments

VOICE OVER: Rebecca Brayton WRITTEN BY: Nick Roffey
These countries have the harshest punishments in the world, and they're cruel and unusual. For this list, we'll be looking at extreme punishments administered by legitimate, government mandated courts or law enforcement agents, focusing especially on non-violent crimes. WatchMojo counts down the Top 10 Countries with Harsh Punishments.
Script written by Nick Roffey

Top 10 Countries with Harsh Punishments

These punishments are cruel, unusual, and really don’t fit the crime. Welcome to WatchM ojo.com, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 countries with harshpunishments.

For this list, we’ll be looking at extreme punishments administered by legitimate, government mandated courts or law enforcement agents, focusing especially on non-violent crimes. Of course, what constitutes a “harsh” punishment depends on how you view a particular crime. WARNING: This video will contain graphic content.

#10: United Arab Emirates

When Australian expat Jodi Magi swore in a 2015 Facebook post, she didn’t think much of it. She had posted a photo of a vehicle parked across two disabled parking spots. But under new cybercrime laws in the United Arab Emirates, insulting someone online is a serious offense; Magi was arrested, jailed and deported. The same year, a man was fined $68,000 for swearing at a colleague on WhatsApp. In case you think you’ve found a loophole, middle finger emojis counts too. Of course, this pales in comparison to punishments in some Emirates for public displays of affection, prohibited sex, and drinking - fines, jail, and deportation for non-Muslims, and flogging for Muslims.

#9: Indonesia

While judicial courts in Indonesia eschew corporal punishment, the province of Aceh is an exception, having been granted the autonomy to practice sharia law. These laws criminalize drinking, gambling, being alone with a non-relative of the opposite sex, and a range of sexual acts. In general, sharia caning is less physically severe than judicial caning in other Southeast Asian countries; men and women are clothed and receive the strokes on their backs. But it’s also public, designed to humiliate in front of cheering crowds videoing the event. And serious injuries aren’t unknown; in 2017, a woman was hospitalized after receiving 100 lashes.

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#8: Singapore

You might have heard about Singapore’s ban on chewing gum, and mandatory death penalty for drug trafficking - laws that in recent times have been diluted to permit exceptions. But what few people know is that Singapore also practices judicial caning, a relic of British colonial rule. Administered only to men, caning is used to punish a wide range of offenses - including overstaying a visa. It might not sound so bad, but we’re not talking about a simple slap on the wrist. The offender is strapped to a flogging frame, and struck across one’s naked buttocks withmaximum force - disintegrating skin and often leaving permanent scars.

#7: Malaysia

Hanging is a common sentence in Malaysia for convicted drug traffickers, and was actually a mandatory punishment until 2017. It’s now up to the discretion of the judge, meaning that if you're caught with seven ounces of marijuana, or a half an ounce of heroin, there's still quite possibly a noose in your future. As in Singapore, Malaysian courts also employ corporal punishment for crimes that range from rape and assault to drug related offenses and illegal immigration. In fact, according to Amnesty International, Malaysia canes around 6,000 migrants and refugees a year.

#6: Vietnam

In 2016, Vietnam’s compulsory drug “rehabilitation centers” made international headlines when at least 562 detainees staged a mass breakout. A few months earlier, 450 had escaped another center. In 2014, a similar 400 person breakout occured. According to human rights groups, they had good reason to want out. In Vietnam, drug users are sent without due process to detention centers and, according to Human Rights Watch, used as forced labour with little or no pay. Former detainees claim to have been beaten and shocked with electric batons. And the centers don’t even work; government figures show a 70-80 percent relapse rate.

#5: Philippines

President Duterte has promised to “slaughter” drug addicts in the Philippines, comparing himself to Hitler. And so far, he seems to have meant it. He’s urged ordinary citizens to murder drug users, and police report over 7,000 killed as of April 2017. Human rights groups claim the number is much higher, and includes children. Of course, a callous disregard for human life is perhaps not surprising considering it’s coming from a man who once commented that as Mayor of Davao he “should have been first” in the gang-rape and murder of an Australian lay minister.

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#4: Iran

It’s estimated that Iran executes the highest number of people per capita, and capital offenses include a broad range of crimes, from murder and terrorism to blasphemy, prohibited sexual relations, and recidivist consumption of alcohol. While the most common method is hanging, adulterers are sometimes sentenced to stoning. Men are buried to their waists, and women to their necks. Nowadays such sentences are seldom carried out; but one case was confirmed as recently as 2009. Iran also practices corporal punishment in the form of flogging and amputation. In 2008, five robbers in one week had their right hands and left feet amputated.

#3: China

It’s estimated that China executes thousands of people each year - more than all other countriescombined. While many of these are for violent crimes, China currently has 46 capital offenses, including embezzlement, drug-related offenses, and robbery. That’s actually down from 68 capital offenses before 2011. But execution isn’t the end of it. In 2005, The Guardian reported that a Chinese cosmetics company was harvesting the skin of executed prisoners for beauty products, and in 2009 China admitted two-thirds of organs used in transplants came from the same source.

#2: Saudi Arabia

Watch what you tweet. In 2016, a Saudi man was sentenced to 2,000 lashes and 10 years in prison for tweets criticizing religion. Saudi Arabia still practices corporal punishment, and uses flogging to punish crimes related to sex, alcohol, and apostasy. Thieves have had their hands and feet cut off, and in 2005 an Indian migrant worker was sentenced to have his eye gouged out for assault. Capital offenses in Saudi Arabia include non-violent crimes such as atheism, drug smuggling, sexual misconduct, and witchcraft. In 2016 the country performed at least 154 executions, most by public beheading. The bodies are sometimes then crucified as a warning.

#1: North Korea

In North Korea, even light transgressions can warrant public execution. According to South Korean paper JoongAng Daily, 80 people were killed in a single day on November 3, 2013, for crimes that included watching South Korean movies. Due to the secretive nature of North Korea’s authoritarian regime, such reports are difficult to verify; but defectors claims public executions and crackdowns on foreign media are commonplace. In 2016, the brutal severity of North Korea’s judicial system was highlighted when American student Otto Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years hard labor for stealing a propaganda poster - but died from an unspecified brain injury suffered in North Korean care.