Vietnam abolishes capital punishment for eight crimes, including spying, anti-state activity

Vietnam has abolished the death penalty for espionage and seven other serious crimes. Photo / Getty Images

Vietnam has abolished the death penalty for eight crimes including espionage, graft and attempting to overthrow the Government, state media said today.

The number of offences for which offenders can face capital punishment will be almost halved from an original 18 to 10 from July, according to the penal code approved by the National Assembly, the official Bao Chinh Phu news portal reported.

According to the amended law, the crimes no longer punishable by death include attempting to overthrow the administration, sabotaging state facilities, production and trade of counterfeit medicine, illegal transportation of narcotics, sabotaging peace and waging war, espionage, property embezzlement and bribe-taking.

Convicts would instead be given the maximum sentence of life in prison.

Minister of Public Security Luong Tam Quang said “the current structure of capital punishment was problematic and, in some cases, misaligned with evolving socio-economic conditions and the realities of crime prevention”.

One of the reasons for the move given by Minister of Justice Nguyen Hai Ninh was that in most cases people sentenced to death for the above crimes were not actually executed.

“The abolishment of capital publishment for several crimes will also serve international co-operation work, especially when Vietnam is promoting closer relations on the basis of mutual trust,” Ninh was reported as saying.

Vietnam has carried out death sentences by lethal injection since 2013, when it replaced execution by firing squad.

The number of executions has not been made public but Amnesty International estimates more than 1200 people were on death row in Vietnam by the end of 2023.

Under Vietnamese law, those sentenced to death for the above eight crimes before July 1 will have their sentences converted to life imprisonment by the chief judge of the Supreme People’s Court.

Disgraced tycoon no longer facing death penalty

A Vietnamese property tycoon sentenced to death for fraud with damages totalling $27 billion will no longer face execution, her lawyer said Wednesday, as the country abolished capital punishment for eight crimes, including property embezzlement.

Property developer Truong My Lan’s lawyer Giang Hong Thanh told AFP that her death penalty “will be converted to life imprisonment... I informed Ms. Lan this morning, she is very happy.”

Vietnam on Wednesday abolished the death penalty for eight crimes including espionage, graft and attempting to overthrow the government, according to state media.

Lan, 68, was convicted last year of swindling money from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) - which prosecutors said she controlled - and sentenced to death for fraud totalling $27b - 6% of the country’s GDP.

She appealed the verdict in a month-long trial, but in December the court in Ho Chi Minh City determined there was “no basis” to reduce her sentence.

But the court said Lan’s sentence could be reduced to life imprisonment if she returned three quarters of the stolen assets.

“If Ms Lan compensates for three quarters of the losses along with some other conditions, she will continue to be considered for a further reduction of her sentence,” lawyer Thanh said.

Lan “is still actively cooperating with state agencies of Vietnam and her partners to find ways to deal with [her] assets and restructure SCB to come to a final solution to the case.”

– Agence France-Presse