On the morning of May 20, at the 9th Session, Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Law and Justice Hoang Thanh Tung reported on the review of the draft revised Penal Code (CPC).
Chairman Hoang Thanh Tung said that the Law and Justice Committee (Committee) approved the necessity of amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Penal Code, especially the contents related to narrowing the scope of the death penalty.
Regarding the plan to abolish the death penalty for some crimes, the Committee has 2 opinions.
The first type of opinion approves the removal of the death penalty and replacement with a life sentence without a reduced sentence for 8 crimes with a death penalty as proposed by the Government.
The second type of opinion approves the policy of continuing to consider abolishing the death penalty for these additional crimes in the Penal Code. However, considering which crime to remove this penalty in this amendment and supplement needs to be carefully considered to avoid affecting the effectiveness of deterrence, prevention and handling of crimes.
Accordingly, it is recommended to carefully consider abolishing the death penalty for greed, bribery, and illegal drug transportation.
The majority of opinions in the Committee agreed with the second type of opinion.
Regarding the addition of drug use crimes, the Committee has 2 opinions.
The first type of opinion approves the addition of this crime because currently, the situation of illegal drug users tends to increase. This is the main cause of illegal acts, including particularly serious cases.
The second type of opinion suggests not to add this crime because it was regulated in the Central Steering Committee in 1999 and abolished since 2010 because drug users are considered by law to be patients.
The handling of drug users in Vietnam is mainly by administrative sanctions, combined with support for treatment and treatment of drug addiction treatment; at the same time, not criminally handling illegal drug users is in accordance with the humanitarian policies of the Party and State, not contrary to international conventions to which Vietnam is a member.
The majority of the Committee's opinions agreed with the second type of opinion.
Chairman Hoang Thanh Tung also said that the Committee basically agrees with raising the prison sentence for a number of environmental and drug crimes and violating food safety regulations to improve the effectiveness of crime prevention and control, promptly protect the interests of the State, the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and citizens.
Request the drafting agency to explain and clarify the basis for increasing the prison sentence for these crimes to increase persuasion; at the same time, review to ensure that the prison sentence is commensurate with the nature and level of danger to society of the criminal act in each law.
The Basic Commission agreed with the Draft Law on raising the penalty is the main penalty and an additional penalty 2 times for a number of specific crimes of the chapter of environmental crimes, the chapter of public safety infringement and public order to overcome shortcomings in the implementation of the Penal Code.
The Committee basically agreed on the time the law is expected to take effect from July 1, 2025 in order to promptly implement the direction of the competent authority, and promptly institutionalize the Party's policy on organizing the organizational structure of the political system.
