Proposal to abolish death penalty for embezzlement and bribery

Continuing the program of the 9th session of the 15th National Assembly, on the morning of May 20, Minister of Public Security Luong Tam Quang, authorized by the Prime Minister, submitted to the National Assembly a draft of the Penal Code (amended), in which it proposed to abolish the death penalty for 8 crimes.

According to the Government 's proposal, the draft law is expected to abolish the death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment without parole (still ensuring the isolation of criminals from social life) for 8/18 crimes with the death penalty.

Scene of the morning meeting on May 20. Photo: QUANG PHUC

The proposed crimes to be abolished from the death penalty include: Crime of activities aimed at overthrowing the people's government; crime of espionage; crime of sabotaging the material and technical facilities of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; crime of producing and trading in counterfeit medicines and preventive medicines; crime of illegally transporting narcotics; crime of embezzlement of property; crime of accepting bribes; crime of undermining peace and waging aggressive wars.

At the same time, add cases where the death penalty is not carried out for people with terminal cancer, people infected with HIV who have progressed to AIDS...

The draft law also proposes to increase the level of imprisonment and fines for some crimes to ensure deterrence, improve the effectiveness of crime prevention and combat, promptly protect the legitimate rights and interests of the state and citizens, in accordance with international regulations such as environmental crimes; production and trade of counterfeit goods, counterfeit food, food additives, medicines, preventive medicines; and drugs.

Minister of Public Security Luong Tam Quang presents the report. Photo: QUANG PHUC

According to the submission, the draft law proposes to amend and supplement a number of provisions in four laws (Amnesty Law, Criminal Enforcement Law, Law on Prevention of Human Trafficking, Law on People's Public Security) to promptly remove difficulties and obstacles in the order, procedures and organization of death penalty execution, in line with the amended and supplemented content of the Penal Code...

The Government's submission stated: According to the current Penal Code, a crime can be punished with 20 years in prison, life imprisonment or death penalty, the application of the penalty levels has only one of three options, the boundary between the levels of fixed-term imprisonment, life imprisonment and death penalty is unclear. In many cases, the selection and application of penalties is very difficult, which can lead to arbitrariness, especially the application of life imprisonment or death penalty.

Therefore, it is necessary to study additional penalties with the aim of expanding the penalty framework of life imprisonment with the death penalty in a number of articles of the current Penal Code so that the application of penalties has more options, the quantitative level for determining the death penalty framework will be pushed higher, thereby indirectly reducing the application of the death penalty.

In addition, the regulations on the death penalty also have many shortcomings. The quantitative levels and types of penalties in the frameworks with the highest penalty being the death penalty for some crimes are still relatively broad, leading to difficulties in determining the basis for applying the death penalty in practice.

Currently, the application of life imprisonment or death penalty is still inadequate. In many cases, based on the nature, extent and consequences, life imprisonment is too light and does not ensure deterrence, but death penalty is too heavy and not consistent with the Party and State's viewpoint on limiting the application and execution of the death penalty.

Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Law and Justice Hoang Thanh Tung presents the inspection report. Photo: QUANG PHUC

In the review report, Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Law and Justice Hoang Thanh Tung said that there were two different opinions on the proposal to abolish the death penalty for some crimes. The first opinion agreed to abolish the death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment without parole for eight crimes with the death penalty as proposed by the Government.

The second type of opinion agrees with the policy of continuing to consider abolishing the death penalty for crimes that still have this penalty in the Penal Code. However, the consideration of abolishing this penalty for which crimes 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 the crimes of embezzlement, bribery and illegal transportation of narcotics. According to Mr. Tung, the majority of opinions in the committee agree with the second type of opinion.

DO TRUNG

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/de-xuat-bo-hinh-phat-tu-hinh-doi-voi-toi-tham-o-tai-san-nhan-hoi-lo-post795995.html