Vietnam considers removing seven crimes from capital punishment

The National Assembly’s Judicial Committee has said it supports removing seven of the current 22 crimes subject to capital punishment.

Nguyen Van Hien, Chairman of the National Assembly’s Judicial Committee

The proposal is part of amendments to the Penal Code under discussion at the ongoing ninth session of the 13th legislature.

The proposed crimes are property theft; vandalism of works and facilities important to national security; disobedience to orders; surrender to the enemy; undermining peace, provoking aggressive wars; crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Chairman of the Judicial Committee Nguyen Van Hien said the committee supports limiting capital punishment on three aspects: reducing the number of offences subject to capital punishment, imposing stricter conditions on death sentences and expanding the number of those who are sentenced to death but exempted from execution.

However, the majority of committee members objected to the proposed amendment that the convicted who are 70 years old or above are exempted from execution, citing that many people at this age still commit serious crimes.

They added that this regulation may be used by criminals as a loophole to evade and delay punishment.

The current Penal Code, adopted in 1999, and amended and supplemented in 2009, has become partially irrelevant to the fight against crimes as the country has seen increasingly complicated and serious criminal offences.

(Source: nhandan.org.vn)