New debate on death penalty?
| Publisher | Amnesty International |
| Publication Date | 1 July 1999 |
| Citation / Document Symbol | ASA 41/04/99 |
| Cite as | Amnesty International, New debate on death penalty?, 1 July 1999, ASA 41/04/99, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6a9c88.html [accessed 28 May 2023] |
| Comments | Amnesty International welcomes recent proposals by the government to reduce the number of capital offenses in Viet Nam. The death penalty is currently a discretionary punishment for a reported 44 offenses. These include treason, murder, rape, drug offenses and theft of state property and fraud. Proposed amendments to the Criminal Code would reduce the number of capital offenses to 30. Although such a reduction would be welcome, as are the discussions of this issue which are taking place among National Assembly members, Amnesty International is concerned that a wide range of offenses punishable by the death penalty will remain in force and executions will continue. The Vietnamese authorities do not regularly make public full official statistics on the number of death sentences imposed and executions carried out, and only a limited number of cases are reported in the official media. However, Amnesty International is reliably informed that most people sentenced to death are executed once they have gone through the final appeals procedure. Executions are carried out by firing squad, apparently often in public, sometimes with more than a thousand people watching. One official has recently been quoted as saying that in 1998 around 30 people were executed, while Amnesty International recorded at least 52 death sentences, most of them for drug trafficking offenses. In 1999 so far four executions and 10 death sentences have been officially reported. Amnesty International believes that the continuing use of the death penalty in Viet Nam is a breach of the fundamental right to life and that the conditions surrounding its application are in contravention of international human rights standards and United Nations recommendations. Routinely unfair trials in Viet Nam mean that the death penalty is imposed under conditions which may lead to irreversible miscarriages of justice. Amnesty International has noted the reported views of senior Vietnamese officials wanting a reduction in the use of the death penalty. In particular Vu Mao, Head of the Office of the National Assembly, is reported as stating on 27 April 1999 that "We have found that the greater penalties punishable by death has not reduced the incidence of crime...We don't intend to abolish the death penalty but we will try to minimize it, for humanitarian considerations". The organization also appreciates that there are already some safeguards on its use in the current Criminal Code which should be retained. These include the inapplicability of the death penalty to minors or pregnant women, as well as the exclusion of people with mental illness from criminal liability if they commit socially dangerous acts. Amnesty International welcomes this recognition that the death penalty has no uniquely deterrent effect on crime, and that it is an inhumane punishment. The organization hopes that there will be further debate and discussion of this issue within Viet Nam. Amnesty International calls on the Vietnamese Government to immediately establish a moratorium on all executions, while taking steps towards total abolition of the death penalty in accordance with international standards and UN recommendations. The organization hopes the proposals currently before the National Assembly will be approved and implemented as soon as possible. |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIET NAM: New debate on death penalty?
Introduction
Shortly before the opening of the fifth session of the 10th National Assembly meeting of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam on 4 May 1999, the authorities announced that as part of the redrafting of the Criminal Code, National Assembly deputies would be discussing proposals to reduce the number of capital offences from 44 to 30. Amnesty International welcomes this development as an indication that the Vietnamese Government is joining a growing number of countries which recognize that the death penalty has no uniquely deterrent effect on crime, and is an inhumane punishment. The organization is encouraged that the problems raised by the death penalty are being discussed within Viet Nam. It also notes that there are already some safeguards on its use in the current Criminal Code which should be retained. These include the inapplicability of the death penalty to minors or pregnant women, as well as the exclusion of people with mental illness from criminal liability if they commit socially dangerous acts.
By the time of the closure of the National Assembly meeting on 12 June 1999 delegates had had time only to discuss and approve 165 articles of the draft Criminal Code. According to the official Viet Nam News of 13 June 1999 the draft Criminal Code consists of 335 articles in 24 chapters. A total of 170 articles in eight and a half chapters remain to be discussed and approved at the next meeting of the National Assembly in late 1999, including articles which provide for the death penalty as a punishment. Details of those articles which have been approved are not yet available. It is therefore not known if any of these relate to capital offences, or whether the death penalty as a punishment has been removed from any of them. Amnesty International hopes that proposals on reducing the number of capital offences will be approved by the next National Assembly meeting and put into effect as soon as possible.
Whilst reducing the number of capital offences would be a positive beginning, Amnesty International is concerned that this does not go far enough in addressing very serious concerns about the continuing use of the death penalty in Viet Nam. The retention of 30 capital offences, which the organization understands would include drug trafficking, smuggling and counterfeiting, amounts to state violence legally imposed in direct contravention of the fundamental human right to life.
Amnesty International is unconditionally opposed to the death penalty as a violation of the right to life and the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, as upheld in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR - Articles 3 and 5) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR - Articles 6 and 7). The organization is gravely concerned at its continuing use in Viet Nam, and the conditions surrounding its application which appear to contravene international human rights standards. The wide range of crimes for which the death penalty may be imposed, including offences not involving violence, and serious concerns about the conduct and fairness of all trials in Viet Nam makes its use seriously alarming.
Recent information on executions and death sentences
The Vietnamese authorities do not regularly make public full official statistics on the number of death sentences imposed and executions which have been carried out, and only a limited number of cases are described in the official media. Amnesty International is reliably informed however that most people sentenced to death are executed once they have gone through the final appeals procedure. Available statistics on officially reported death sentences and executions during the last five years are given below. Those marked with an asterisk are officially reported totals. The other figures are taken from reports on individual cases in the media monitored by Amnesty International - these numbers are unlikely to reflect the true figures, which are believed to be higher.
|
Year |
Death sentences |
Executions |
|
1994 |
100* |
90* |
|
1995 |
104* |
11 |
|
1996 |
113* |
5 |
|
1997 |
44 |
9 |
|
1998 |
52 |
around 30* |
|
January to June 1999 |
10 |
4 |
In the first week of January 1999 two men, Tran Van Thuan and Huynh Te Cam, were executed by firing squad in front of thousands of people in a district of Ha Noi, Viet Nam's capital city. They were accused of being members of an illegal organization called the "National Resistance Front for the Restoration of Viet Nam" led by exiles abroad, which reportedly aimed to create instability through a "guerrilla" campaign targeting foreign investors. Tran Van Thuan was arrested in June 1996 while allegedly smuggling "subversive" documents from Cambodia into Viet Nam; it is not known when Huynh Te Cam was arrested. They were sentenced to death in July 1997 on charges of involvement in subversive activities, including a grenade attack on a park in Ho Chi Minh City in October 1994 in which 18 people were injured, nine of them foreigners.
During the same week, it was reported in the official media that 49 people had been sentenced to death during 1998 for drug offences alone[1]. Since then a Singaporean national has been executed and seven men and one woman sentenced to death for drug offences. Two men, one a senior customs official and the other a businessman, were sentenced to death at the end of April 1999 in a major smuggling trial involving 74 defendants. The trial was highly publicized with the two sentenced to death convicted respectively of accepting bribes and masterminding a smuggling ring worth US$ 77 million; six other defendants received life sentences, and the remainder were sentenced to between two years suspended and 20 years. Another major trial opened on 10 May 1999 at Ho Chi Minh City People's Court in which 77 defendants face charges of fraud and corruption; it has been reported that the two main defendants in the trial may face the death penalty. The most recent reported execution was that of a 22-year-old woman, Le Thi Thuy, who was executed in public on the outskirts of Ha Noi on 4 May 1999 for the murder of a child. Her execution had been upheld by the President on 19 April 1999.
Legislation and the death penalty
According to the 1985 Criminal Code and subsequent amendments, the death penalty is currently an optional punishment for 44 offences in Viet Nam. Thirty-four of these are listed in Appendix 1. They include treason, murder, rape, drug offences and theft of state property and fraud. Amendments made in May 1997 increased the scope for imposing the death penalty to 44 offences. Amnesty International does not have copies of these amendments, but they are known to include for example: possession of five kgs of opium or 100 grams of heroin (quantity reduced from previously); embezzlement of US$ 45,000 or accepting a bribe worth US$ 4,500; and the rape of minors under 13.
Even if the number of capital offences is reduced to 30, this still constitutes a wide range of capital offences which is incompatible with international standards on the use of the death penalty, and with recommendations from UN bodies. Viet Nam has ratified a number of major human rights instruments, including the ICCPR, and has an obligation to implement their provisions. In his report to the National Assembly on 12 May 1999, Justice Minister Nguyen Ninh Loc is reported to have said that "the new criminal code would ensure Viet Nam's respect of provisions of international treaties to which Viet Nam had become a signatory or participant."[2] International standards recommend at a minimum that the death penalty should only be imposed for the most serious of crimes, and favour states moving towards complete abolition.
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Article 6(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Viet Nam is a state party, recommends: "In countries which have not abolished the death penalty, sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes...". The UN Human Rights Committee, which provides guidance on the interpretation of the ICCPR, states that "the expression most serious crimes' must be read restrictively to mean that the death penalty should be a quite exceptional measure."[3] |
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In December 1996 the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions stated that "the death penalty should be eliminated for crimes such as economic crimes and drug-related offences."[4] In April 1998 the United Nations Commission for Human Rights (UNCHR) passed Resolution 1998/8 calling for states still retaining the death penalty: "(a) Progressively to restrict the number of offences for which the death penalty may be imposed; (b) To establish a moratorium on executions, with a view to completely abolishing the death penalty; (c) To make available to the public information with regard to the imposition of the death penalty;" These recommendations were reinforced by a Resolution adopted by the UNCHR in April 1999. This resolution also urged all States that still maintain the death penalty: "(b) To ensure that the notion of "most serious crimes" does not go beyond intentional crimes with lethal or extremely grave consequences and that the death penalty is not imposed for non-violent financial crimes or for non-violent religious practice or expression of conscience;" |
Unfair trials and the death penalty
Concern about the use of the death penalty in Viet Nam is compounded by the routine unfairness of trials which do not conform to international standards. Defendants do not have the right to appoint counsel of their own choice. A lawyer will be assigned to them, but often not until the very last moment before their case is heard. The defence is not allowed to call or question witnesses, and private consultation with counsel may be limited. In many cases all the defence counsel can do is plead for clemency on a defendant's behalf.
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Safeguards for the conduct of fair trials are contained in Article 14 of the ICCPR. They include the right of anyone facing a criminal charge to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal; the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty; the right to be informed promptly and in detail in a language which he or she understands of the nature and cause of the charges against him or her; the right to have adequate time and facilities for the preparation of a defence; the right to communicate with counsel of the defendant's choosing; the right to free legal assistance for defendants unable to pay for it; the right to examine witnesses for the prosecution and to present witnesses for the defence; the right to free assistance of an interpreter if the defendant cannot understand or speak the language used in court. It is particularly important that these safeguards are scrupulously observed when capital punishment may be imposed. |
Amnesty International believes that trials in Viet Nam fall far short of these international standards, raising grave concerns that the death penalty is imposed under circumstances which may lead to irreversible miscarriages of justice.
One particularly shocking example of a badly conducted trial which resulted in imposition of the death penalty was that of 19-year-old Duong The Tung. He was sentenced to death in April 1996 for murdering a policeman during New Year celebrations earlier in February. The case received a lot of publicity in Viet Nam, and it was reported that 2000 people watched and applauded the trial proceedings from the grounds of Ha Noi People's Court. Duong The Tung was taken into an anteroom while waiting for the court verdict, where he was tortured by police armed with electric batons. Although in good health when he was removed from the courtroom, on his return he was clearly suffering from the physical effects of the electric shock torture. On imposing the death sentence, the Chief Judge said that he did so in order to avoid "indignation of the people and to preserve discipline and threaten the other criminals." Duong The Tung was executed on 24 April 1997.
Executions
After a person has been sentenced to death by a court, she or he has the right to appeal to the Appeals Court and then to the Supreme People's Court. If the Supreme People's Court upholds the death sentence, then the person may appeal to the President within seven days for commutation. If this appeal is rejected then the person will be executed. Commutations are rare. Lack of official information on individual cases makes it impossible to assess accurately how long prisoners are held on death row before execution. However, of 14 people known to have been sentenced to death between 1994 and 1997, the maximum time to go through the appeals process before their execution was 20 months and the minimum five months.
Executions are carried out by a firing squad of five people, apparently often in public, followed by quick burial. Relatives are not informed beforehand, but are asked to collect executed prisoners' belongings two to three days afterwards. Other people are encouraged to attend. One witness of a public execution which took place in March 1998 described how six men and one woman convicted of drug trafficking were taken to a field on the outskirts of Ha Noi at dawn, blindfolded and tied to wooden stakes. More than 1000 people are reported to have watched. The woman is reported to have been very distressed and fainted three times before execution. Five shots were fired at each of the prisoners' bodies, with a final shot to the head. Other accounts of executions describe the victims being taken to the execution ground blindfolded and gagged with lemons in their mouths.
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Public executions have been criticized in UN commentary on international standards. In July 1996 the Human Rights Committee established under the ICCPR stated that "Public executions are ... incompatible with human dignity."[5] |
Recent official statements about the use of the death penalty
In the last few years the Vietnamese authorities have become increasingly concerned about rising crime and "social evils" - a term used to describe drug abuse, prostitution, and pornography. In particular, official reaction to a growing drug problem within the country, and to serious corruption and fraud within state and non-state enterprises, has been to step up use of the death penalty in punishing offenders. In November 1998 an unconfirmed report stated that one death sentence a week for corruption was being handed down by courts in Ho Chi Minh City; and another that one prison in northern Nghe An province with 16 cells for death row prisoners was overcrowded with 22 prisoners awaiting execution, 19 of them for drug offences.
There is no clear evidence that the death penalty has any identifiable effect in reducing crime, and Amnesty International believes that arguments against its use far outweigh any possible advantages. International opinion about the efficacy of the death penalty appears to be moving towards acceptance that this is a punishment imposed by the state which does not guarantee justice and is in direct contravention of international standards on human rights. Some Vietnamese officials appear to be recognizing that the death penalty does not in fact help to reduce crime, and it is hoped this will increasingly become the basis of discussion among legislators in Viet Nam.
While some of the comments made in recent months by senior officials are welcome, Amnesty International hopes that discussion about the death penalty in Viet Nam will be taken further.
n In November 1998 Prime Minister Phan Van Khai is reported to have said that he did not want to have many executions; some members of the National Assembly were reported to have called for a reduction in the range of capital offences.
n In January 1999 Prime Minister Phan Van Khai is reported to have said that he wanted fewer death penalties and that he disliked execution by firing squad.
n At a three-day conference held between 22 and 24 March 1999 by the Internal Security Commission of the Communist Party of Viet Nam Central Committee, President Tran Duc Luong is reported to have said that he wanted the Criminal Code changed to limit the number of crimes carrying the death penalty, and a change in the method of execution[6].
n On 27 April 1999 Head of the Office of the National Assembly Vu Mao is reported to have said at a news conference that the forthcoming National Assembly session will discuss the reduction of the number of capital offences from 44 to 30. According to the report, Vu Mao stated "We have found that the greater penalties punishable by death has not reduced the incidence of crime...We don't intend to abolish the death penalty but we will try to minimize it, for humanitarian considerations."[7]
n At the same press conference, Nguyen Dinh Quyen, deputy director of the Legislative Affairs Committee of the National Assembly is reported to have stated that they were calling for the number of offences punishable by death to be reduced from 44 to 30. If the recommendations were approved by the National Assembly, almost all economic crimes such as fraud and smuggling would no longer be capital offences. "The crime for production and trading of false food and veterinary and human medicines, which are very dangerous will be punished by death", he is reported to have said.[8]
n At the opening of the National Assembly meeting on 4 May, National Assembly Chairman Nong Duc Manh is reported to have said that the proposed law will consider the death penalty for "certain cases of murder involving violent or extremely dangerous methods" and "eight crimes said to violate national security ...and four crimes against peace and war crimes". It was also reported that there is no provision for commutation of death sentences under proposed new legislation.
n An illustration of the debate in the 10th National Assembly meeting about the proposed amendments to the Criminal Code, was reported in the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Viet Nam:
"In terms of the death sentence, many NA [National Assembly] deputies held that this is the most severe punishment, depriving the criminal of his right to live, so it is necessary to be very cautious when judging the danger the criminal poses to society. For this reason, when a death sentence is declared it must be a special court case punishment meted out against those who commit a particularly serious crime. In face of the socio-economic conditions of the country in the present time, the death sentence shall not be annulled, NA delegates affirmed, adding that the death sentence is necessary for certain kinds of particularly dangerous crimes. On the other hand, some NA deputies said out that it is not so good to have so many death sentences in an attempt to reduce crimes.
"Moreover, some NA deputies called for reducing a number of cases in the 30 cases of the death sentence in the draft law, for example the crime to misappropriate and embezzle public property in the article 137. Of this case, it is quite sufficient for criminals to serve life imprisonment, they said."[9]
n A further indication of the debate around the issue of the death penalty, and conflicting views of delegates to the National Assembly is shown by an article in the Saigon Times Daily which is reported to have quoted Justice Minister Nguyen Dinh Loc "as saying it had originally been intended to remove the death penalty from all economic crimes, but it was later decided to retain the punishment for those convicted of fraud or misappropriation of property", and that it "would also be retained for certain instances of bribery".[10]
Further reports in the official media on the meeting indicate that the debate on appropriate punishments for offences, including imposition of the death penalty, was continuing as the meeting came to an end on 12 June 1999. Amnesty International hopes that the government will encourage this debate to continue, with a view to an eventual abolition of the death penalty in Viet Nam.
Recommendations
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In its last three resolutions on the Question of the death penalty the UN Commission on Human Rights "expressed its conviction that abolition of the death penalty contributes to the enhancement of human dignity and to the progressive development of human rights". |
Amnesty International believes that Viet Nam is failing to meet international standards and act on UN recommendations concerning the use of the death penalty. The organization welcomes proposals to reduce the number of capital crimes which are being discussed during the current National Assembly meeting. However, it believes that these proposals do not go far enough, and urges the government to take the following measures to move towards abolition of the death penalty in law: