The proposal to reduce the number of crimes subject to the death penalty in an amended Penal Code sparked heated debates at a conference held yesterday in southern Hoa Binh City.
The National Assembly's Judicial Committee had proposed the amendment and its deputy head, Duong Ngoc Nguu, said the number of crimes subject to the death penalty in the amended Penal Code would be reduced from 44 to 22, with plans to lower it even further to 15.
Deputy Minister Dinh Trung Tung from the Ministry of Justice said the death penalty will only apply in cases involving crimes of extraordinary brutality and illegal drug dealings.
While agreeing with the government's effort to cut back on the use of the death penalty, Deputy Chief of the Police Department Lt. General Nguyen Phong Hoa argued that further consideration should be given to other crimes, such as drug trafficking.
"The situation is dire on the border front. Some nights, we get reports of up to 60 drug trafficking operations. Traffickers in these cases were armed and ready to open fire on law-enforcement forces," the deputy chief said.
Minors, pregnant women, mothers of children aged under three and elderly people aged 70 or above were not to be subjected to capital punishment, he said.
The amended Penal Code aims to remove the death penalty for an additional 7 types of crime other than corruption.
Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Tat Vien, a member of the Steering Committee for Judicial Reform, said, "In light of rampant corruption across the country, maintaining the death penalty for crimes related to corruption and bribery is necessary."
The Supreme People's Court Deputy Chief Justice Nguyen Son agreed and noted that the move confirmed the Government and the Party's resolute stance in the fight against corruption.
The amended Penal Code also proposed the criminalisation of additional activities, including manipulation of public opinion polling, violations of freedom of speech and freedom of the press and obstruction of the citizens' right to access information and carry out peaceful protests.
Source: news.asiaone.com, March 27, 2015
Vietnam considers scrapping death penalty for 7 crimes
The abolition of the death penalty has been proposed for 7 crimes under the
current Penal Code, Deputy Minister of Justice Dinh Trung Tung said in a
seminar on Tuesday, citing an amendment to the code.
Meanwhile, another amendment has been proposed to include three new crimes in
the code, Tung said.
The deputy minister released the information at a seminar held by the National
Assembly Justice Committee in the northern province of Hoa Binh to discuss a
number of basic orientations for amending the Penal Code.
One of the major amendments to the Penal Code is to limit the scope of capital
punishment, Tung told the seminar.
He said the board drafting amendments to the code has advised that the death
penalty be scrapped for seven crimes, including plundering property, destroying
important national security works and/or facilities; disobeying orders in the
military; surrendering to the enemy which is applicable in the army;
undermining peace, provoking aggressive wars; crimes against mankind; and war
crimes.
Besides, capital punishment has been recommended to be maintained only for the
crime of "illegally trading in narcotics" and be abolished for all the other
drug-related charges, Tung said.
He told the seminar that death sentences should be applied to offenders who
have committed especially serious crimes that infringe upon human life - such
as murder in a cruel manner, murder and robbery, murder and rape, or murder for
mean purposes - or pose serious threats to social order and safety and to the
development of society, as possibly seen in drug-related cases.
If the amendments are approved, the number of crimes subject to the death
penalty in Vietnam will be reduced to 15 from the current 22.
Death should be maintained for corruption convictions
Most of the seminar attendees agreed to these proposed amendments, but
emphasized that they should not be extended to corruption-related crimes, which
the country is trying to prevent and fight.
Speaking at the event, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Tat Vien, a standing
member of the Central Steering Committee for Justice Reform, said, "There have
many opinions saying that the death penalty should be abolished for corruption
or embezzlement charges, but I think that such an abolition should not be
approved given the current situation."
Nguyen Son, deputy chief judge of the People's Supreme Procuracy, also said
that maintaining death sentences for corruption crimes is one of the ways to
prove the resolve of the Party and State to combat corruption.
3 new charges proposed
In the spirit of respecting and ensuring full enforcement of human rights as
well as citizens' basic rights and obligations specified in the 2013
Constitution, another amendment has been proposed to include three new charges
in the Penal Code, Deputy Minister Tung said.
The new charges include infringing upon citizens' voting rights in referendums
held by the State; altering referendum results; and infringing upon the right
to freedom of speech, the right to freedom of the press, and citizens' rights
to demonstration, Tung said.
In addition, heavier penalties have also been suggested for a number of
existing crimes mentioned in the code, including infringement upon citizens'
places of residence; infringement upon other persons' privacy or the safety of
their letters, telephone and/or telegraph; illegally forcing laborers or public
employees to leave their jobs; infringement upon citizens' rights to assembly
and association, rights to freedom of belief and religion; and infringement
upon the rights to complain and/or denounce, the official said.
Lethal injection for death penalty
In terms of execution methods, Vietnam switched from firing squad to lethal
injection in November 2011, under Decree 82/2011 by the government.
However, the new execution method took years to implement due to a failure to
import the needed drugs from the European Union, which banned the exportation
of lethal injection drugs because it considers capital punishment a violation
of human rights.
The Vietnamese government then issued Decree 47/2013 to amend Decree 82,
allowing domestically produced drugs to be used for executions.
Decree 47 took effect on June 27, 2013 and the 1st execution by lethal
injection was carried out in Hanoi on August 6, 2013.
Source: Tuoi Tre News, March 27, 2015
