Abolishing the death penalty for 8 crimes is a suitable step in the process of international integration.

Mr. Truong Viet Toan. Photo: Contributor

According to the current Penal Code, 18 crimes have the highest penalty of death. However, the Ministry of Public Security believes that recent practice has shown that some crimes are dangerous in nature and level to society and do not require the death penalty.

At the same time, in practice, the court has not applied the death penalty to these crimes, for example: Crime of "Activities aimed at overthrowing the people's government", crime of "Sabotage of material and technical facilities of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam", crime of "Production and trading of counterfeit medicines and disease prevention products", ... or rarely applied such as crimes of "Embezzlement of property", "Receiving bribes", ...

In the draft revised Penal Code, the Ministry of Public Security proposed to abolish the death penalty for 8 crimes, including "Embezzlement of property" and "Receiving bribes".

Mr. Truong Viet Toan, former judge and former Deputy Chief Justice of the Hanoi People's Court, who has presided over many major trials, said he agrees with the Ministry of Public Security's proposal to abolish the death penalty for some crimes, especially the crimes of "Embezzlement of property" and "Receiving bribes".

According to Mr. Toan, many countries in the world currently only apply the death penalty for a few particularly serious crimes. Meanwhile, Vietnam is still maintaining the death penalty for many crimes, which is not completely compatible with international standards.

Therefore, the elimination of the death penalty for eight crimes as proposed by the Ministry of Public Security is an appropriate step in Vietnam's process of deep international integration, especially in the judicial field.

According to the former judge, the proposal to abolish the death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole is appropriate and has a strong deterrent effect. Abolishing the death penalty will not reduce the effectiveness of corruption prevention, because in reality, the defendants' awareness of overcoming the consequences is often present from the investigation and prosecution stages, not because of fear of the death penalty.

Inevitable trend

Doctor, lawyer Dang Van Cuong (Head of Chinh Phap Law Office, Hanoi Bar Association) said that abolishing the death penalty for some crimes and moving towards abolishing the death penalty in criminal law is an inevitable trend.

If in the past there were many forms of capital punishment (hanging, beheading, shooting, etc.), in modern society, those forms have almost been eliminated from the legal system of countries.

Dr., lawyer Dang Van Cuong. Photo: NVCC

Today, 112 countries have abolished the death penalty. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights also encourages countries to abolish or gradually reduce and have a roadmap to abolish the death penalty.

According to the lawyer, when society is still backward, citizens' awareness of law enforcement is not good, drug crimes, murder, terrorism, crimes against national security and crimes directly violating important social relationships are still common, the death penalty has a strong deterrent effect and plays an important role in ensuring the strictness of the law.

However, with the trend of internationalization and the role and responsibility of countries joining human rights conventions, the abolition of the death penalty is an inevitable trend.

“The abolition of the death penalty for some crimes as proposed by the Ministry of Public Security is in accordance with the law and international commitments. At the same time, it also demonstrates the civilization of society, the effectiveness in social management and crime prevention, and the increasingly complete guarantee of human rights and civil rights within the legal framework,” said lawyer Dang Van Cuong.

VN (according to Vietnamnet)

Source: https://baohaiduong.vn/bo-an-tu-hinh-voi-8-toi-danh-la-buoc-di-phu-hop-tien-trinh-hoi-nhap-quoc-te-410767.html