Prosecuting agencies apologise for miscarriages of justice

Heads of Vietnam’s prosecuting agencies have taken responsibility and apologised for convicting innocent people in recent years.

Prosecutor General of the Supreme People’s Procuracy Nguyen Hoa Binh

Minister of Public Security Tran Dai Quang said the reason behind such mistakes is because investigators were at times careless and impatient under the pressure to deliver a verdict quickly and failed to apply the presumption of innocence.

He also cited the shortage of staff and rising number of criminal cases as one of the reasons why many investigations were not conducted in a more careful and thorough way.

According to Minister Quang, each year investigation agencies at all levels prosecuted nearly 80,000 cases with more than 120,000 defendants, adding that at many agencies, an investigator has to deal with 30-50 cases annually.

Prosecutor General of the Supreme People’s Procuracy Nguyen Hoa Binh said in order to reduce miscarriages of justice lawyers should be allowed to participate earlier in prosecution proceedings.

He said that courts of law should be given the power to deliver a verdict based on the adversarial process, publicly checked documents and evidence as well as have the right not to open cases if there are violations against the proper prosecution procedure and the rights of lawyers are not ensured.

The prosecutor general said upcoming amendments to the criminal procedure code will place a greater emphasis on the presumption of innocence, under which a defendant is innocent until proven guilty.

Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court Truong Hoa Binh said it is unacceptable to convict innocent persons, adding that part of the reason is that the role of defence lawyers is usually overlooked.

(Source: nhandan.org.vn)