'Production of fake milk and fake functional foods must be punished by death'

On the morning of May 27, continuing the program of the 9th session of the 15th National Assembly , delegates discussed in the hall about the draft revised Penal Code.

The draft proposes to abolish the death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for eight crimes.

These crimes include: embezzlement of property (Article 353); bribery (Article 354); illegal transportation of narcotics ( Article 250); activities aimed at overthrowing the people's government (Article 109); espionage (Article 110); sabotage of material and technical facilities of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Article 114); production and trade of counterfeit medicines and preventive medicines (Article 194); sabotage of peace and waging of aggressive wars (Article 421).

Delegate Pham Khanh Phong Lan proposed to increase the penalty for the act of producing fake milk and fake functional foods.

PHOTO: GIA HAN

"If you were humane towards criminals, how would the victims' relatives feel?"

Giving her opinion on the discussion, delegate Pham Khanh Phong Lan (HCMC delegation) supported the abolition of the death penalty for four crimes; she was very concerned about the remaining four crimes (embezzlement, bribery, counterfeit drug production and illegal drug trafficking).

According to the female delegate, the crime situation in the above areas has caused extremely serious consequences and is becoming more and more complicated. Given that context, "why do we reduce sentences?"

Ms. Lan cited the explanation of the proposal on abolishing the death penalty to ensure humanity and to be in line with the general trend of the world . However, she said, "If we are humane towards criminals, how will the relatives of the victims and those who died because of this crime feel?"

According to the representative of the Ho Chi Minh City delegation, when committing one of the four crimes mentioned above, the offender almost "knows everything, what the consequences will be, and what responsibility he will bear". However, many people still do it for their own benefit.

From the above analysis, Ms. Lan proposed to keep the death penalty as a "stopper" to deter criminals, while showing the people the State's determination to not be lenient with criminals, contributing to restoring order and ensuring social safety.

In particular, Ms. Lan said, as someone responsible for detecting and handling violations, along with a series of cases discovered recently, she proposed adding the death penalty (currently the highest penalty is life imprisonment) for the crime of producing and trading in counterfeit goods, especially functional foods and fake milk.

"These acts affect the vulnerable in society, greatly impacting people's health and trust," Ms. Lan said, emphasizing that "we cannot be lenient with criminals."

Delegate Pham Van Hoa proposed to retain the death penalty for crimes of corruption and illegal drug trafficking.

PHOTO: GIA HAN

Transport is the "twin brother" of drug trafficking

Delegate Pham Van Hoa ( Dong Thap delegation) also expressed concerns about the abolition of the death penalty for the crimes of embezzlement, bribery and illegal drug trafficking.

Mr. Hoa cited the reality of recent trials, showing that very few people who committed crimes in the group of corruption crimes were sentenced to death. But even if not, maintaining this punishment is still very meaningful.

There are cases where before the prosecutor proposed the death penalty, there was no movement. Only when the proposed sentence was seen did the family and the defendant actively return the money and remedy the consequences to escape the death penalty.

Thus, the death penalty is not only the highest level of punishment, but also a motivation for criminals to remedy the damage. Mr. Hoa mentioned the Truong My Lan case, with the "unimaginable" amount of embezzled money, if only half of this amount could be recovered, this source of money could be used to invest in building large projects.

With the above analysis, Mr. Hoa proposed to maintain the death penalty to prevent, deter, and appropriately punish criminals. "Of course, when they repent and actively overcome the consequences, the sentence can be reduced to life, 30 years, 20 years...", he said.

Regarding the crime of illegal transportation of drugs, the Dong Thap delegation representative compared it to "twin brothers" with the crime of illegal drug trafficking. Without the act of transportation, drugs cannot reach the users.

In addition, Mr. Hoa supports the proposal in the draft to criminalize the crime of illegal drug use (currently only subject to administrative penalties).

The delegate said that during meetings with voters, "people complained a lot" about the illegal use of drugs, which poses a great risk to security and social order.

Illegal drug users are considered sick, so they are sent to rehabilitation centers. If they are successfully rehabilitated, the results are naturally good; but if they relapse, the situation will return to normal.

Therefore, it is necessary to increase the punishment by imprisonment for illegal drug users. "Of course there must be differentiation, only applied to cases of intentional repeated violations," Mr. Hoa said.