It's the death penalty only if she does not return some large percentage of the money. The death penalty here is the incentive for her to actually try to claw back the money. Though western outlets are speculating she'll never be able to recover the 27bn they are asking for. (44bn in damages overall)

I would argue life imprisonment is actually significantly crueler than death, assuming the conditions are anything resembling a US prison, or even most european ones. Either actually work to reform people and treat them with human dignity, or you might as well kill them, really.