On the afternoon of June 10, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave its opinion on the reception, explanation, and revision of the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Penal Code (amended).
Presenting a report on the reception, explanation, and revision of the above draft Law, Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Law and Justice (PLTP) Hoang Thanh Tung said that in the draft Law, the Government continued to propose to maintain the regulation on abolishing the death penalty in 8 crimes with the death penalty framework of the current lower court, including:
Crimes of activities aimed at overthrowing the people's government; Crimes of sabotage of facilities and techniques of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; Crimes of production and trading of counterfeit goods as medicine, disease prevention; Crimes of illegal transportation of drugs; Crimes of sabotage of peace, causing war of aggression; Crimes of Espiece; Crimes of embezzlement of property; Crimes of accepting bribes.
According to the Government, the death penalty for the above crimes was abolished for the main reasons, such as: in the past trial, the Court did not apply or rarely applied the death penalty for these crimes;
In line with the trend of reducing the death penalty in legal regulations as well as actual implementation in the world; serving Vietnam's international cooperation activities; abolishing the death penalty in some crimes to ensure the humanity and humanity of the Party and State...
Regarding this content, the PLTP Committee said that in addition to agreeing with the above proposal, there are other opinions.
Accordingly, there are opinions on the consideration of abolishing the death penalty for 4 crimes, including: Crime of operating to overthrow the people's government, Crimes of Espiece, Crimes of sabotage of facilities - techniques of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and Crimes of sabotage of peace, causing war of aggression.
However, in the context of the complicated criminal situation, which tends to increase in number as well as severity today, this type of opinion proposes to keep the death penalty for 4 crimes, including:
The crimes of producing and trading counterfeit goods such as medicine, disease prevention drugs, the crime of illegally transporting drugs, the crime of embezzling property and the crime of accepting bribes to ensure deterrence, prevention and strictness of the law in the fight against these crimes.
In addition, there are opinions from the Standing Committee of the People's Committee of the World Bank suggesting that in case the death penalty is still applied to the crime of embezzlement of property and the crime of accepting bribes, study and supplement it with Clause 2, Article 40 of the Penal Code stipulating "The death penalty shall not be applied to those who commit embezzlement of property or bribery but have proactively returned at least three-quarters of their embezzlement and bribery assets before being sentenced and actively cooperated with the authorities in detecting, investigating, handling crimes or making great contributions".
This is to create a legal basis for applying leniency policies right in the trial period, without waiting for the execution of the judgment.
In his concluding remarks, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh suggested that the drafting agency continue to coordinate with relevant specialized agencies to absorb comments and review regulations to develop a complete draft Law and receive high consensus.
