Continuing the 8th Session of the 15th National Assembly, on the morning of October 23, Chairwoman of the Committee on Justice Le Thi Nga presented a report explaining, accepting and revising the draft Law on Juvenile Justice.
Regarding the summary of penalties in cases of multiple crimes, Chairwoman Le Thi Nga said that many opinions agreed with the provisions in the draft law. Some opinions suggested keeping the provisions of the current law to ensure deterrence.
Receiving the opinions of National Assembly deputies, the National Assembly Standing Committee directed a thorough review and found that the provisions of Article 103 of the current Penal Code on the synthesis of penalties are unreasonable, leading to unfairness. The amendments such as Clauses 2 and 3, Article 117 of the draft law have overcome the above unfairness.
Regarding the total level of general punishment, it is proposed to adjust in the direction of: no more than 12 years in prison for people from 14 years old to under 16 years old and no more than 18 years in prison for people from 16 years old to under 18 years old and apply uniformly to all crimes (not just apply to 5 crimes as in the draft law).
Such a provision ensures differentiation in handling policies between minors who commit one crime and minors who commit multiple crimes; and does not increase the responsibility for handling compared to the provisions of the Penal Code.
Regarding the separation of criminal cases involving minors, the majority of opinions agree with the draft law that cases involving minors must be separated for resolution. Some opinions suggest that criminal cases involving minors should not be separated.
According to the National Assembly Standing Committee, the draft law has added many specialized, friendly and more humane policies and regulations for minors such as:
The time limit for investigation, prosecution and trial of minors shall not exceed half of the time limit for adults, except in cases of particularly complicated nature.
The person conducting the proceedings must meet the condition of having been trained or having experience in investigating, prosecuting and trying cases involving minors.
Prescribe specific and specialized procedures, processes, and time limits for considering and deciding on the application of community-based diversion measures and educational diversion measures at reformatories for minors.
The draft law also has many other specialized policies that only apply to minors in the process of resolving criminal cases...
To fully implement these humane policies, the Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Justice, Supreme People's Procuracy, and Supreme People's Court all agreed to separate cases in cases where the defendants are minors and adults.
However, regarding the time of case separation during the investigation phase, the Ministry of Public Security proposed to stipulate when it is considered that the criminal behavior of the minor and related circumstances have been clarified; the Supreme People's Court proposed not to specifically stipulate the time of case separation in the law and should assign the Central Judicial Branch to stipulate in detail to cover cases in practice of case settlement.
In response to the opinions of the majority of delegates and relevant agencies, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly proposed that the National Assembly retain the provision of the draft law requiring the separation of cases involving minors committing crimes during the investigation phase for resolution, in order to ensure full and effective implementation of the humane, friendly, and progressive policies of the draft law.
