(Hanoi, 26th) Starting next month, Vietnam will abolish the death penalty for eight crimes, replacing the highest punishment with life imprisonment.
On Wednesday (June 25), the Vietnamese National Assembly unanimously passed amendments to the Criminal Law, effective July 1, reducing the number of crimes punishable by death from 18 to 10.
The eight crimes for which the death penalty is abolished are: overthrowing the government, corruption and bribery, destruction of state property, producing and trafficking counterfeit drugs, drug trafficking, undermining peace, waging aggressive war, and espionage. The maximum penalty for these crimes will be changed to life imprisonment.
Vietnamese Minister of Justice Nguyen Hai Ninh pointed out that one reason for this amendment is that many inmates sentenced to death for these crimes have actually not been executed.
Minister of Public Security To Lam said there are problems with the current death penalty system. “Under certain circumstances, this system is not compatible with the ever-changing social and economic conditions and crime prevention needs.”
It is understood that after the new law takes effect, those who were sentenced to death before July 1 for any of the eight crimes listed above, but whose execution has not yet been carried out, will have their sentences uniformly commuted to life imprisonment by the Supreme People’s Court.
This means that Vietnam’s richest woman, Truong My Lan, who masterminded the biggest financial fraud in Vietnamese history and was sentenced to death last April for corruption, will escape execution.
Truong My Lan’s lawyer, Giang Hong Thanh, told AFP that her death sentence would be commuted to life imprisonment. “Truong My Lan is very pleased with this.”
Vietnam has not made public its annual execution numbers, but Amnesty International estimates that by the end of 2023, the country had more than 1,200 people on death row.
After the amendment, crimes that are still punishable by death in Vietnam include murder, treason, terrorism, and child sexual abuse.
On Wednesday (June 25), the Vietnamese National Assembly unanimously passed amendments to the Criminal Law, effective July 1, reducing the number of crimes punishable by death from 18 to 10.
The eight crimes for which the death penalty is abolished are: overthrowing the government, corruption and bribery, destruction of state property, producing and trafficking counterfeit drugs, drug trafficking, undermining peace, waging aggressive war, and espionage. The maximum penalty for these crimes will be changed to life imprisonment.
Vietnamese Minister of Justice Nguyen Hai Ninh pointed out that one reason for this amendment is that many inmates sentenced to death for these crimes have actually not been executed.
Minister of Public Security To Lam said there are problems with the current death penalty system. “Under certain circumstances, this system is not compatible with the ever-changing social and economic conditions and crime prevention needs.”
It is understood that after the new law takes effect, those who were sentenced to death before July 1 for any of the eight crimes listed above, but whose execution has not yet been carried out, will have their sentences uniformly commuted to life imprisonment by the Supreme People’s Court.
This means that Vietnam’s richest woman, Truong My Lan, who masterminded the biggest financial fraud in Vietnamese history and was sentenced to death last April for corruption, will escape execution.
Truong My Lan’s lawyer, Giang Hong Thanh, told AFP that her death sentence would be commuted to life imprisonment. “Truong My Lan is very pleased with this.”
Vietnam has not made public its annual execution numbers, but Amnesty International estimates that by the end of 2023, the country had more than 1,200 people on death row.
After the amendment, crimes that are still punishable by death in Vietnam include murder, treason, terrorism, and child sexual abuse.