On the morning of May 27, the National Assembly discussed in the hall the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Penal Code.
Explaining and clarifying some issues raised by National Assembly deputies, Party Central Committee member and Deputy Prime Minister Le Thanh Long stated that at the discussion session, deputies focused on proposing to add a new penalty (the body does not consider reducing sentences); completely abolish the death penalty for some crimes; increase the penalty for some crimes, especially in the field of environment, production and trading of counterfeit drugs; re-criminalise the act of illegally using drugs.
The Deputy Prime Minister stated that the Government's only proposal to revise and supplement a number of articles is to select a number of urgent and urgent issues.
Regarding the proposal to abolish the death penalty for 8 crimes, the Deputy Prime Minister stated that by 2024, 142/193 United Nations member states had abolished the death penalty in the regulations.
For Vietnam, abolishing the death penalty for 8 crimes is a very long step forward in the viewpoint of criminal policies for some crimes. The first Penal Code issued in 1985 has 44 articles regulating the death penalty; in 1999, it was reduced to 29 articles; in 2009, it was further reduced to 7 articles to 22 articles; in 2015 (amended and supplemented in 2017) it was reduced to 18 articles and in this draft amendment, there are 10 articles regulating the death penalty.
Previously, the Ministry of Public Security also reported on the reception and explanation of the opinions of National Assembly deputies at the group discussion session, including the proposal to abolish the death sentence for 8 crimes.
In response to many opinions suggesting keeping the death penalty for embezzlement of property and bribery, the Ministry of Public Security said that these crimes are not "crimes", do not violate human life, do not directly violate national security, and do not need to deprive of life. This is also a common trend in the world.
The Ministry of Public Security also believes that not applying the death penalty and replacing it with life imprisonment without considering a reduction in sentence still ensures deterrence because this is a particularly severe penalty, permanently depriving a person of freedom.
Regarding the removal of the death penalty for the crime of manufacturing and trading counterfeit medicine and disease prevention drugs, many National Assembly deputies also proposed to keep the death penalty.
Explaining this issue, the Ministry of Public Security said that the Politburo has basically agreed to reduce the death penalty, including studying the removal of this penalty for the crime of producing and trading counterfeit drugs.
Trial evidence shows that fake drugs are mainly fake labels, poor quality, have no effect on treatment... it is difficult to determine whether they cause death or not to apply the death penalty. In fact, no one has been sentenced to death for this crime.
Considering its danger to society, this behavior does not pose a danger to society as murder or terrorism.
If they use toxins to produce fake drugs for murder, they will be prosecuted for murder. Therefore, the death penalty for this crime can be considered for removal.
Regarding the crime of illegally transporting drugs, many opinions also suggested keeping the death penalty, the Ministry of Public Security said that this is the crime with the second highest rate of capital punishment applied in all crimes.
However, compared to the crime of illegal drug trafficking and the crime of illegal drug production (the crimes still carry the death penalty), the crime of illegal drug transportation is intermediate in nature, less dangerous than the act of buying, selling and producing.
