Death Row Inmates to Have Sentences Commuted to Life Imprisonment from July 1
Truong My Lan, Chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Group Convicted of Embezzling Tens of Trillions of Won Also Included
The Vietnamese government has reduced the maximum sentence for eight crimes, including embezzlement, from the death penalty to life imprisonment. As a result, a real estate tycoon who embezzled tens of trillions of won through a massive financial crime has avoided execution.
According to reports from foreign media such as the Associated Press and the Wall Street Journal on June 25, the Vietnamese National Assembly passed an amendment to the criminal code that abolishes the death penalty for eight out of 18 crimes that previously carried the death sentence as the maximum punishment. The eight crimes include embezzlement, acts to overthrow the government, drug possession, destruction of state property, espionage, manufacturing counterfeit pharmaceuticals, threats to peace, and provoking aggressive war. Inmates sentenced to death for these offenses will have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment by July 1. The maximum penalty for ten other serious crimes?including murder, drug trafficking, treason, terrorism, and child sexual abuse?will remain the death penalty as before.
Minister of Public Security To Lam commented on the amendment, stating, "The current death penalty system has issues, and in some cases, it does not align with the changing social and economic circumstances or the realities of crime prevention." Minister of Justice Nguyen Hai Ninh said, "In many cases, those sentenced to death for these crimes have not actually been executed," and added, "Abolishing the death penalty for certain crimes will also help with international cooperation."
As a result of this legal revision, Truong My Lan (69), founder and chairwoman of major Vietnamese real estate developer Van Thinh Phat Holdings, who was sentenced to death last year, is also expected to have her sentence commuted to life imprisonment. Chairwoman Lan was sentenced to death by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court in April last year for embezzlement and bribery, including embezzling 304 trillion dong (approximately 15.9 trillion won) from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), which she controlled, between 2012 and 2022. Her sentence was upheld in an appeal trial in December last year, confirming the death penalty. However, the court indicated that if she returned more than 75% of the assets, her sentence could be reduced to life imprisonment.
She used SCB as a "cash warehouse" for her personal benefit, taking out 2,500 loans and causing a total loss of 677 trillion dong (about 35.3 trillion won), which is equivalent to about 6% of Vietnam's GDP. Officially, Chairwoman Lan held no position at SCB, but it is known that she owned about 91% of SCB's shares under the names of proxies.
The current number of death row inmates in Vietnam has not been disclosed. Amnesty International, a human rights organization, estimated that as of the end of 2023, there were about 1,200 death row inmates in Vietnam.
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