On the morning of August 20, General Luong Tam Quang - Member of the Politburo, Minister of Public Security submitted to the National Assembly the draft Penal Code (amended).
The Minister of Public Security clearly stated that the development of the Code is aimed at continuing to institutionalize the Party's guidelines, policies on building, developing and protecting the country in the new situation, overcoming obstacles and inadequacies in the practical implementation of the Penal Code...
The draft Penal Code consists of 3 parts, 25 chapters, 415 articles, compared to the current Penal Code, 8 articles have been removed, 14 new articles have been added, 301 articles have been amended, and 100 articles have been kept unchanged.
In addition, the draft amends and supplements regulations related to crimes, in which 9 new charges are added, and at the same time, some new objective acts are added to the composition of current charges.
Along with that, the draft law removes and separates some crimes to ensure streamlining, unity, ensuring differentiation of criminal responsibility, reflecting the true nature, role and level of danger of each group of acts.
The Minister of Public Security said that the draft amends and supplements the regulations on penalties. In which, narrowing the scope of application of the death penalty for 6 crimes, only keeping the death penalty for 4 crimes including treason, murder, terrorism, and illegal production of narcotics.
The draft removes the penalty of prohibiting capital mobilization for commercial legal entities committing crimes; basically doubling the monetary penalty and the quantitative level in money in the constituent elements of the crime, defining the penalty framework for the crimes.
In this draft amendment, the drafting agency also proposed to expand the scope of application of non-custodial reform penalties at the basic frame for 10 crimes; amend and supplement a number of other regulations related to penalties.
Another content, according to the Minister of Public Security, the draft amends and supplements regulations on excluding criminal liability, postponing criminal prosecution, and exemption from criminal liability.
In which, expanding the scope of criminal liability exclusion in research, testing, application of new technologies, technology-controlled testing, processes, solutions, products, services, and new business models in technology development and innovation.
At the same time, expanding the scope of criminal liability exclusion in the performance of national defense and security tasks, and the fight against crime of the armed forces.
Supplementing regulations on temporary suspension of criminal prosecution, exemption from criminal prosecution for some specific cases.
Appraising this draft law, the Law and Justice Committee agreed to add a number of new crimes, in order to promptly combat newly arising socially dangerous acts, and continue to internalize international treaties of which Vietnam is a member.
However, it is proposed to carefully review the composition of crimes, clarify the boundaries between criminal acts and administrative violations, and ensure consistency with specialized laws.
