HANOI: Vietnam will remove the death penalty for eight offences from next month, including embezzlement and activities aimed at overthrowing the government, parliament said on Wednesday (Jun 25), sparing the life of a tycoon in a US$12-billion fraud case.
The National Assembly, the country’s lawmaking body, unanimously ratified the amendment to the Criminal Code earlier on Wednesday to abolish the death penalty for the crimes, it said in a statement.
Other crimes that will no longer lead to the death penalty include vandalising state property, manufacturing fake medicine, jeopardising peace, triggering invasive wars, espionage and carrying drugs, the official Vietnam News Agency said.
The maximum sentence for these crimes will now be life imprisonment, the report said.
Those who were sentenced to death for these offences before Jul 1 but have not yet been executed will have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment, the report added.
