Increase prison sentences and fines for some crimes to increase deterrence

Minister of Public Security Luong Tam Quang presented the Report

Increase penalties for certain crimes to ensure deterrence

On May 20, continuing the 9th Session, the National Assembly held a plenary session in the Hall to listen to the Presentation and Review Report of the draft Penal Code (amended).

Minister of Public Security Luong Tam Quang said that the development and amendment of the Criminal Code project aims to continue institutionalizing the Party's guidelines, policies and strategies on crime prevention and control in the context of building and perfecting the socialist rule-of-law state of Vietnam in the new period of international integration, ensuring both humanity and leniency as well as deterrence and strictness, effectively contributing to protecting the regime, protecting human rights, protecting the interests of the State and organizations, contributing to protecting social order and safety, promoting the development of a socialist-oriented market economy , ensuring that everyone lives in a safe and healthy social and ecological environment.

The viewpoint of building the Penal Code (amended) project is to institutionalize the viewpoints of our Party and State; continue to concretize the provisions of the 2013 Constitution; ensure conformity with the practical socio-economic situation of the country; remove and resolve difficulties and obstacles from the practical implementation of the provisions of the Penal Code; be consistent with international treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a member, ensuring the consistency and unity of the legal system.

The Minister of Public Security stated that the draft Code consists of 4 articles: Article 1. Amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Penal Code (including amending and supplementing 52 articles, of which 18 articles are related to the narrowing of the death penalty; 4 articles are amended in content; 2 articles are amended to conform to the new structure and organization of the apparatus after not organizing the district-level police and the names of the ministries after implementing the merger plan.

Other laws amend and adjust the fine level to double to suit the economic and social situation; some crimes related to the environment, food safety, and drugs increase the prison sentence to ensure deterrence; Article 2. Amend and supplement a number of articles of related laws; Article 3. Effective date; Article 4. Transitional provisions.

The draft Code increases the level of imprisonment and fines for a number of crimes to ensure deterrence, improve the effectiveness of the fight against crime, promptly protect the legitimate rights and interests of the State and citizens, in accordance with international law provisions such as environmental crimes, production and trade of counterfeit goods, counterfeit goods being food, food additives, medicines, preventive medicines, and drugs.

At the same time, add the crime of illegal use of narcotics; amend and supplement a number of provisions of 04 Laws: Amnesty Law, Criminal Enforcement Law, Law on Prevention and Combat of Human Trafficking, Law on People's Public Security to promptly remove difficulties and obstacles in procedures and organization of execution of death sentences, in sync with the amended and supplemented content of the Penal Code, serving the requirements of arranging and streamlining the apparatus; ensuring the synchronization and unity of the legal system.

In addition, the Government proposed to submit to the National Assembly for consideration, comments and approval of the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Penal Code according to the shortened procedures at the 9th Session of the 15th National Assembly.

Increase prison sentences for environmental and drug crimes

Examining the Criminal Code project, Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Law and Justice Hoang Thanh Tung said that the Committee on Law and Justice (CJJ) agreed with the necessity of amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Criminal Code for the reasons stated in the Government's Submission; highly appreciated the drafting agency for actively and diligently researching and building a dossier for the project Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Criminal Code to report to the Government for submission to the National Assembly to ensure content and progress according to the direction of competent authorities, especially the contents related to narrowing the scope of application of the death penalty.

The UBPLTP found that the content of the draft Basic Law closely follows and institutionalizes the Party's viewpoints and policies, and is consistent with the provisions of the Constitution on human rights and basic rights and obligations of citizens.

However, it is recommended that the drafting agency continue to study and review the Party's resolutions issued recently such as Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW, Resolution No. 66-NQ/TW and Resolution No. 68-NQ/TW... to institutionalize them immediately in the Penal Code.

In addition, it is recommended to continue to carefully review the provisions of the draft Law with related laws that are in the process of being amended and supplemented, submitted to the National Assembly for consideration, and expected to be approved at the 9th Session to avoid overlap and contradiction in handling violations of the law, ensuring the consistency of the legal system.

Regarding the addition of the crime of illegal use of narcotics (Article 242), the People's Committee for Criminal Procedure has two opinions. The first opinion agrees with the addition of this crime because currently, the number of people using illegal narcotics tends to increase. This is the main cause leading to violations of the law, including particularly serious cases.

The second type of opinion suggests not adding this crime because it was previously stipulated in the 1999 Penal Code and was abolished in 2010 because drug users are considered by law to be sick people.

The handling of drug users in Vietnam is mainly by administrative sanctions, combined with support for drug addiction treatment; at the same time, not criminally prosecuting illegal drug users is consistent with the humane policies of the Party and State, and does not contradict international conventions to which Vietnam is a member. The majority of opinions of the UBPLTP agree with the second opinion.

Regarding raising the prison sentence for some crimes, the People's Procuracy basically agrees with raising the prison sentence for some environmental crimes, drug crimes and violations of food safety regulations to improve the effectiveness of the fight against crime, promptly protect the interests of the State, and the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and citizens.

It is recommended that the drafting agency explain and clarify the basis for increasing the prison sentence for these crimes to increase persuasiveness; at the same time, review to ensure that the prison sentence is commensurate with the nature and level of danger to society of the criminal act in each article of law.

Regarding the increase in the level of fines as the main penalty and additional penalties for some crimes, the People's Committee for Criminal Procedure basically agrees with the draft Law on increasing the level of fines as the main penalty and additional penalties to twice the level for some specific crimes in the Chapter on environmental crimes, the Chapter on crimes against public safety and public order to overcome shortcomings in the practical implementation of the Penal Code.

Phuong Lien

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/tang-hinh-phat-tu-phat-tien-cua-mot-so-toi-danh-de-tang-tinh-ran-de-102250520141226271.htm