On the morning of May 24, General Luong Tam Quang - Politburo member, Minister of Public Security, authorized by the Prime Minister, presented the draft Law on Transferring People serving prison sentences.
According to the Minister, the purpose of the law is to perfect the law on transferring people serving prison sentences in a humane, comprehensive, specific, synchronous, unified, feasible, and stable direction, promoting international cooperation in transferring people serving prison sentences.
Regarding costs and funding, the draft law stipulates that in case Vietnam is the transferee country, Vietnam will pay for the costs of transferring people serving prison sentences arising up to the time of handover, unless otherwise agreed.
In case the receiving country is Vietnam, Vietnam will pay all expenses for the transfer of people serving prison sentences arising from the time of receipt, unless otherwise agreed.
Funding for the transfer of people serving imprisonment sentences in accordance with the law on the state budget. People serving imprisonment sentences or other agencies, organizations and individuals may voluntarily contribute, support all or part of the cost of living, travel and other expenses of the person serving prison sentences transferred in accordance with the law.
Regarding the authority to consider receiving people serving prison sentences abroad to return to Vietnam, the draft Law stipulates that the People's Court of the area where the person proposed for transfer has the final permanent residence in Vietnam decides to receive.
Regarding the conditions for receiving and transferring people serving prison sentences, the draft law stipulates that people serving prison sentences abroad can be received and transferred when they meet all the following conditions:
- Be a Vietnamese citizen (in case of receiving a person serving a prison sentence abroad to Vietnam) or a citizen of the receiving country or a person permitted to reside indefinitely in the receiving country or the receiving country agrees to receive (in case of transferring a person serving a prison sentence in Vietnam to another country).
- The act of committing a crime for which that person is sentenced to imprisonment constitutes a crime under the provisions of Vietnamese law and the law of the country of transfer (or receiving country).
- At the time of receiving the transfer request, the prison sentence must not be carried out for at least one year; in special cases, this period may be less than one year.
- The sentence for the transferred person has come into legal effect.
- With the consent of Vietnam and the transferee country (or receiving country).
- There is the consent of the transferred person. In case the transferred person is not fully capable to agree according to the law of the transfer country, there must be the consent of the legal representative of that person.
These provisions basically inherit the provisions in Article 50 of the Law on Judicial Assistance.
However, to facilitate Vietnamese citizens to continue serving their prison sentences in Vietnam, in the case of Vietnam as the host country, the draft law removes the regulation on people serving prison sentences having their final permanent residence in Vietnam and stipulates the remaining term to continue serving their sentences for at least 6 months in special cases.
These are new contents compared to the Law on Judicial Assistance. The draft law stipulates that the Government shall specify in detail special cases if the prison sentence has not been served for less than one year.
