What are cases of adjournment of criminal appellate trial in Vietnam?

What are cases of adjournment of criminal appellate trial in Vietnam?

Hello Lawnet. I am a student at Vinh University. This semester, I am studying general law I have a question as follows: What are cases of adjournment of criminal appellate trial in Vietnam? Which legal document stipulates this issue? Thank you! - Tran Thu Hang (0908****)

Answer:

According to current law, adjournment of criminal trial is the transfer of the scheduled time of conducting a criminal court session to another later time. The adjournment of criminal trial can only be done when there are grounds prescribed by the criminal procedure code.

Pursuant to Clasue 1 Article 352 of the Criminal Procedure Code in 2015 stipulating cases of adjournment of criminal appellate trial in Vietnam as follows:

The appellate court can adjourn the trial only in one of the following events:

a) There are justifications as defined in Article 52, 53, 349, 350 and 351 of this Law;

b) Evidences, documents or items must be verified or added outside the court;

If the trial is halted, the process of adjudication shall restart.

Pursuant to Article 297 the Criminal Procedure Code in 2015 stipulating adjournment of trial as follows:

The duration of an adjournment to a trial at first instance shall not exceed 30 days upon the issuance of a decision to adjourn the trial.

A written decision to adjourn a trial shall specify these primary details:

a) The issue date of the decision;

b) The name of the Court and full name of the Judge(s), lay assessors and Court clerk;

c) The full name of Procurator(s) exercising prosecution rights and administering the trial in court;

d) The case being adjudicated;

d) The reasons of the temporary halt to the trial;

e) The time and location for the resumption of the trial

4. The presiding judge shall represent the Trial panel to sign the written decision to halt the trial. If the presiding judge is absent or replaced, the Court president shall decide to adjourn the trial.

A decision to adjourn a trial, in 02 days upon the issuance of the decision, must be announced to the participants in legal proceedings in court, be sent to the equivalent Procuracy and to individuals absent from the court.

What content are included in the decision to adjourn a trial in Vietnam?

Hello Lawnet. I am currently working at Tuoi Tre Newspaper. I am collecting information to serve the writing of practical articles on solving current criminal cases. I see the fact that a number of court cases were in the process of being adjudicated when the Trial Panel decided to adjourn the trial. I want to ask about the decision to adjourn a trial in Vietnam? Thank you very much!

Answer:

Pursuant to Clasue 1 Article 352 of the Criminal Procedure Code in 2015 stipulating cases of halt of criminal appellate trial in Vietnam as follows:

Firstly, adjournment of criminal trial is the transfer of the scheduled time of conducting a criminal court session to another later time. The adjournment of criminal trial can only be done when there are grounds prescribed by the criminal procedure code.

Pursuant to Clause 3 Article 297 the Criminal Procedure Code in 2015 stipulating content included in the decision to adjourn a trial in Vietnam as follows:

A written decision to adjourn a trial shall specify these primary details:

a) The issue date of the decision;

b) The name of the Court and full name of the Judge(s), lay assessors and Court clerk;

c) The full name of Procurator(s) exercising prosecution rights and administering the trial in court;

d) The case being adjudicated;

d) The reasons of the temporary halt to the trial;

e) The time and location for the resumption of the trial

We would like to give you some further information as follows:

The court shall halt the trial in one of the following events:

a) There are justifications as defined in Article 52, 53, 288, 289, 290, 291, 292, 293, 294 and 295 of this Law;

b) Evidences, documents or items must be verified or supplemented outside the court;

c) Expert examinations must be furthered or repeated;

d) Valuation processes must be furthered or repeated.

If the trial is halted, it shall restart.

The duration of a temporary halt to a trial at first instance shall not exceed 30 days upon the issuance of a decision to halt the trial.

The presiding judge shall represent the Trial panel to sign the written decision to halt the trial. If the presiding judge is absent or replaced, the Court president shall decide to halt the trial.

A decision to halt a trial, in 02 days upon the issuance of the decision, must be announced to the participants in legal proceedings in court, be sent to the equivalent Procuracy and to individuals absent from the court.

Are temporary halt of a trial and adjournment of a trial the same?

Hello Lawnet. I am currently living and working in Khanh Hoa in the medical field. Recently, when I followed the press, I saw many articles about the settlement of criminal cases, in which I saw that they mentioned about the halt of a trial. Some other articles talked about adjournment of a trial. I wonder if the nature of  temporary halt of a trial and adjournment are the same. Where can I get more information about this issue? Thank you!

Answer:

Pursuant to Article 251 of the Criminal Procedure Code in 2015 stipulating temporary halt to trial in Vietnam as follows:

1. The trial may be halted in one of the following events:

a) Evidences, document and items must be verified, gathered or supplemented; however, such tasks are not viable in court and shall be fulfilled in 05 days' time upon the temporary halt to the trial;

b) Authorized procedural persons and participants in legal proceedings, due to health conditions, force majeure or objective obstacles, cannot continue their attendance in court; however, they can reappear in court in 05 days' time upon the temporary halt to the trial;

c) The court clerk is absent from the Courtroom.

2. The temporary halt to the trial shall be inputted into the written record of the Court and announced to participants in legal proceedings. The duration of a temporary halt to a trial shall not exceed 05 days upon the issuance of the decision to halt the trial. Upon the expiration of the halt, the trial resumes. If the trial cannot resume, it shall be adjourned.

Pursuant to Article 297 of the Criminal Procedure Code in 2015 stipulating adjournment of a trial in Vietnam as follows:

1. The court shall halt the trial in one of the following events:

a) There are justifications as defined in Article 52, 53, 288, 289, 290, 291, 292, 293, 294 and 295 of this Law;

b) Evidences, documents or items must be verified or supplemented outside the court;

c) Expert examinations must be furthered or repeated;

d) Valuation processes must be furthered or repeated.

If the trial is halted, it shall restart.

2. The duration of a temporary halt to a trial at first instance shall not exceed 30 days upon the issuance of a decision to halt the trial.

3. A written decision to halt a trial shall specify these primary details:

a) The issue date of the decision;

b) The name of the Court and full name of the Judge(s), lay assessors and Court clerk;

c) The full name of Procurator(s) exercising prosecution rights and administering the trial in court;

d) The case being adjudicated;

d) The reasons of the temporary halt to the trial;

e) The time and location for the resumption of the trial

4. The presiding judge shall represent the Trial panel to sign the written decision to halt the trial. If the presiding judge is absent or replaced, the Court president shall decide to halt the trial.

A decision to halt a trial, in 02 days upon the issuance of the decision, must be announced to the participants in legal proceedings in court, be sent to the equivalent Procuracy and to individuals absent from the court.

Thus, based on the above provisions, we can see that the nature of the temporary halt of the trial and the adjournment of the trial are not the same. These are two completely independent activities, arising on different grounds during the trial of criminal cases. Specifically, some of the key differences are shown below:

- Regarding the grounds for decision-making: The trial may be temporarily halted when it falls into one of the cases listed in Clause 1, Article 251 of the 2015 Criminal Procedure Code, while the adjournment of the court hearing comes from one of the grounds mentioned in Clause 1, Article 297 of the 2015 Criminal Procedure Code.

- Time limit: The time limit for adjournment of the first-instance court hearing must not exceed 30 days from the date of issuance of the decision to postpone the court hearing.

Meanwhile, the time limit to temporarily halt the court session shall not exceed 5 days from the date of the decision to temporarily halt the court session. At the end of time limit, the trial of the case may be resumed. This provision is intended to ensure a quick trial, avoid prolonging the time for the settlement of the case, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of the participants in the proceedings. At the end of time limit, the trial of the case may be resumed. In case the trial cannot be continued, the court session must be adjourned. Thus, upon the expiration of the time limit for adjournment of the court hearing, the trial may continue, that is, if at any stage before the temporary halt of the court session the case is being resolved, when the time limit for adjournment expires, the case will continue to be resolved at the stage before the temporary halt. This is completely different from the regulation on adjournment of the trial because once the trial has been adjourned, when the trial is reopened, the case will be retried from the beginning. This regulation is appropriate, ensuring the quick resolution of the case, avoiding unnecessary repetition of procedures.

- In terms of form: The adjournment of the court hearing must be done by means of a written decision. The decision must fully show such information as the date and year of the decision, the full names of the persons conducting the proceedings, the reason for the adjournment of the trial, the time and place of the re-opening of the trial.

The adjournment of the court session must be recorded in the minutes of the court session and notified to the procedure participants. This provision is completely reasonable because the adjournment of the trial only takes place for a short time, after the time limit expires, the case continues to be tried and this trial is a continuation of the legal proceedings. of the trial that was opened before the adjournment, but not from the beginning.

- Regarding the time and authority to make decisions:

In fact, only when the court session is opened can the Court determine exactly whether there are grounds for adjournment, so in principle the right to adjourn the trial only belongs to the Trial Panel. However, in case the presiding judge is absent or changed, the chief justice of the court shall issue a decision to postpone the court session.

Similar to adjournment of a trial, in principle the court hearing shall only be adjourned when the trial has been opened if there are grounds in accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code. Therefore, the authority to decide to suspend the trial belongs to the Trial Panel. The decision to suspend the court session discussed and approved by the Trial Panel in the courtroom is not made in writing but must be recorded in the court session minutes.

Best regards!