Vietnamese government proposes abolishing death penalty for 8 crimes

The eight crimes include activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s administration; espionage; sabotaging national infrastructure; manufacturing and trading of counterfeit medicines; illegal transport of narcotic substances; embezzlement; taking bribes; and acts of aggression and war crimes.

Speaking at the ongoing NA session in Hanoi on Tuesday, Quang said the current 2015 Penal Code has revealed shortcomings.

The current structure of capital punishment remains inappropriate while some regulations fail to go in line with socio-economic conditions and crime prevention activities, he said.

The government, therefore, suggests introducing life imprisonment without parole to replace the death sentence for the eight crimes. 

In addition, the draft bill includes amendments to other provisions related to capital punishment, such as exempting from execution individuals with terminal cancer or HIV that has progressed to AIDS and includes opportunistic infections.

Different viewpoints

According to Hoang Thanh Tung, chairman of the NA’s Committee on Legal and Judicial Affairs, there are two prevailing viewpoints on the proposal.

The first viewpoint supports abolishing the death penalty and replacing it with life imprisonment without parole for these eight offenses, as proposed by the government.

Meanwhile, the second viewpoint agrees with reducing the scope of the death penalty but suggests considering the removal of capital punishment for crimes like embezzlement, bribery, and drug trafficking.

Tung stated that the majority of the committee's members agree with the second viewpoint.

Regarding the introduction of life imprisonment without sentence reduction as a replacement for the death penalty, Tung said most lawmakers support the initiative.

However, some members argued that this proposed punishment should not be introduced as an independent penalty as it is not significantly different from the current life imprisonment.

As an alternative to life imprisonment without parole, they suggested introducing regulations specifying cases in which defendants serving life sentences would not be eligible for parole, similar to provisions in the Amnesty Law.