Ensure strict, fair and humane execution of judgments

Discussing the draft Law on Enforcement of Criminal Judgments (amended) and the Law on Enforcement of Temporary Detention, Temporary Imprisonment and Prohibition from Leaving Place of Residence at Group 2, National Assembly Deputies of Ho Chi Minh City agreed that it is necessary to overcome shortcomings and overlaps in current regulations, create a more synchronous, transparent and feasible legal corridor and improve management efficiency, ensuring serious, fair and humane enforcement of judgments.

Panorama of the meeting of the National Assembly Delegation of Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Quang Khanh

" Key" to ensuring the strictness of the law

National Assembly deputies highly agreed with the need to amend and supplement the Law on Enforcement of Criminal Judgments and the Law on Enforcement of Temporary Detention, Temporary Imprisonment and Prohibition from Leaving Place of Residence. National Assembly Deputy Nguyen Tam Hung emphasized that the enforcement of criminal judgments is not only the concretization of criminal judgments that have come into effect but also the final bridge in the criminal justice process.

Effective, humane and law-abiding enforcement of judgments is the "key" to ensuring the strictness of the law, maintaining social order and security; at the same time, achieving the purpose of educating and reforming criminals, helping them reintegrate into the community, becoming useful citizens when reintegrating into the community; ensuring the legitimate rights and interests of those serving sentences, protecting victims and society.

National Assembly Delegate Nguyen Tam Hung (Ho Chi Minh City) speaks. Photo: Quang Khanh

Commenting on the principles of criminal judgment execution in Article 4 of the draft Law, delegate Nguyen Tam Hung proposed adding the phrase “timeliness, fairness, transparency”. Accordingly, Clause 1 of Article 4 should be amended in the direction of: “Complying with the Constitution and laws, ensuring timeliness, fairness, and transparency in judgment execution, ensuring the interests of the State, the rights and legitimate interests of agencies, organizations, individuals, and victims (if any)”.

The delegate also proposed to amend Clause 4, Article 4 of the draft Law in the direction of: "Harmoniously combining coercion and punishment with education and reform in the execution of sentences; the application of coercive measures must be based on the principle of respecting honor and dignity and not exceeding the necessary limits; applying education and reform measures based on the nature, level of crime, age, health, gender, education level and other personal characteristics of the person serving the sentence".

Proposal to add regulations on "detention cells of special zone police"

Regarding the draft Law on Temporary Detention, Temporary Imprisonment and Prohibition from Leaving the Place of Residence, delegates agreed to expand the scope of regulation by adding the measure of "prohibition from leaving the place of residence" as one of the preventive measures commonly applied in criminal proceedings.

National Assembly Deputy Vu Huy Khanh agreed to more clearly define the responsibilities of the People's Committee at the commune level in directing, supervising, and managing people subject to the measure of banning them from leaving their place of residence, and to clearly define the specific responsibilities of the police at the commune level in directly assisting the Chairman of the People's Committee at the commune level in implementing this measure.

National Assembly Deputy Vu Huy Khanh (Ho Chi Minh City) speaks. Photo: Quang Khanh

Regarding the system of detention agencies (Articles 8 and 9 of the draft Law), delegate Vu Huy Khanh said that, implementing a two-level local government, many island districts previously no longer had district-level police, so there were no longer district-level investigation agencies and no longer had temporary detention centers to carry out detention.

According to the delegate, on the mainland, the police agency is organized at two levels: provincial and communal police agencies. In which, communal police agencies have increased authority in prosecution activities, are assigned more intermediate investigators, and in many cases, the Chief of Commune Police and Deputy Chief of Commune Police have the same authority as the Deputy Head of the Provincial Police Investigation Agency, which is the right to prosecute and temporarily detain.

Considering that in the current organizational model, there is no presence of facilities serving temporary detention at the commune level, delegate Vu Huy Khanh proposed adding to Clause 1, Article 9 the regulation on "temporary detention cells of the special zone police" to meet the requirements of procedural activities and to suit the actual conditions far from the mainland.

Delegate Nguyen Tam Hung proposed to remove the phrase “remote areas” in Clause 1, Article 9 of the draft Law (regulations on temporary detention cells of border guards) for the reason of ensuring consistency with the Criminal Procedure Code, in which the Border Guard Command at the port has the authority to conduct a number of investigation activities and temporarily detain people but has not yet organized temporary detention cells. Removing this phrase will overcome the current shortcomings.

National Assembly Deputy Duong Ngoc Hai (Ho Chi Minh City) speaks. Photo: Quang Khanh

Regarding the classification and management of detention (Article 17 of the draft Law), delegate Duong Ngoc Hai proposed to change the term “regularly” in “people who regularly violate internal regulations” to “repeatedly” to be consistent with the term used in procedural codes. The delegate also proposed to remove the phrase “due to actual conditions” in the regulations on separate detention, because this phrase is difficult to understand and difficult to apply in practice.

Regarding the implementation of the extraction of detainees and prisoners (Article 21 of the draft Law), delegate Duong Ngoc Hai said that the regulation that the detention facility hands over the person to the agency responsible for escorting, and then the escorting agency hands over to the person with authority to order the extraction is unreasonable. The person with authority to order the extraction, such as the leaders of the Court and the Procuracy, does not have enough conditions, forces, tools, and means to manage the person in temporary detention. Therefore, delegate Duong Ngoc Hai proposed to amend in the direction of requiring the agency and person responsible for escorting to coordinate with the person with authority to order the extraction to manage the person in temporary detention.

Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/bao-dam-thi-hanh-an-nghiem-tuc-cong-bang-va-nhan-van-10394317.html