The Ministry of Justice has just released the appraisal dossier for the draft proposal and the draft amendment to the Criminal Code, prepared by the Ministry of Public Security. It is expected that the amended Criminal Code project will be submitted to the National Assembly for review, comments, and approval under a streamlined procedure at the 10th session of the 15th National Assembly (October 2025).
According to the proposal, the Ministry of Public Security stated that under the current Criminal Code, there are still 18 offenses carrying the maximum penalty of death. However, practical experience in recent years has shown that some of these offenses, in terms of their nature and level of danger to society, do not necessarily warrant the retention of the death penalty. At the same time, courts have not applied the death penalty to these offenses in practice, such as the crime of activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s government or the crime of sabotaging the material and technical foundations of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Other offenses, such as producing or trading counterfeit goods like medicines for treatment or disease prevention, or crimes like embezzlement of property and bribery, have either rarely been punished with death or not at all.
Regarding the scope of cases where the death penalty would not apply, the Ministry of Public Security’s proposal specifies cases involving individuals with terminal illnesses, such as late-stage cancer or HIV that has progressed to AIDS with opportunistic infections and a poor prognosis. These conditions are likened to a death sentence in themselves, yet such individuals are still detained and subjected to intensive treatment while awaiting execution, without any provisions excluding them from the death penalty or its enforcement.
Consequently, the draft amendment to the Criminal Code proposes abolishing the death penalty and replacing it with life imprisonment without parole (still ensuring the offender’s isolation from society) for five specific offenses:
- Activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s government (Article 109 of the Criminal Code);
- Sabotaging the material and technical foundations of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Article 114);
- Producing or trading counterfeit goods like medicines for treatment or disease prevention (Article 194);
- Illegally transporting narcotics (Article 250);
- Undermining peace or provoking aggressive war (Article 421).
In addition, the proposal suggests abolishing the death penalty and replacing it with life imprisonment without parole for several other offenses, including espionage (Article 110), embezzlement of property (Article 353), and bribery (Article 354).
This move aligns with a review and evaluation project addressing shortcomings in the Criminal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code, and the Law on Execution of Criminal Judgments concerning the application and enforcement of the death penalty. It also reflects efforts to reduce the number of offenses subject to the death penalty and promote the transition from death sentences to imprisonment, as proposed by the Party Committee of the Supreme People’s Procuracy and submitted to the Politburo for consideration.
