From January 1, 2018, the 2015 Penal Code (amended and supplemented by Law No. 12/2017/QH14) officially takes effect. Accordingly, the application of the provisions in this Code is implemented as guided by Resolution 41 as follows:
Article table of contents
Application of Favorable Provisions for the Offender
- All provisions of the Criminal Code 2015 are to be applied for the prosecution, investigation, adjudication, and execution of sentences for acts committed from 00:00 on January 1, 2018;- Provisions of the Criminal Code 2015 that are more favorable for the offender (such as abolishing a penalty, stipulating a lighter punishment, or granting exemption from criminal responsibility) shall apply to acts committed before 00:00 on January 1, 2018, if such acts are discovered, under investigation, prosecution, or adjudication, or if the individual is undergoing a sentence reduction or criminal record expungement;- The circumstances of “causing serious consequences”, “causing very serious consequences”, “causing particularly serious consequences”, “large quantity”, “very large quantity”, “particularly large quantity”, “large illegal profit”, “very large illegal profit”, “particularly large illegal profit”, “land of large area”, “land of very large area”, “land of particularly large area”, “large value”, “very large value”, “particularly large value”, “large scale” as per the Criminal Code 1999 that were applied for prosecution before 00:00 on January 1, 2018, still follow the Criminal Code 1999 unless the provisions of Criminal Code 100/2015/QH13 as specified in Resolution 144/2016/QH13 have been applied favorably.- Provisions on criminal responsibility for commercial juridical persons in Criminal Code 2015 do not apply to offenses committed by commercial juridical persons before 00:00 on January 1, 2018;- In cases where substances suspected to be drugs in solid form have been dissolved, drugs in liquid form have been diluted, opium residue, or narcotic or psychotropic medicines as stipulated in Articles 248, 249, 250, 251, and 252 of the Criminal Code 2015, the concentration of the drug must be determined as a basis to identify the weight or volume of the seized drugs. For other cases, the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code 101/2015/QH13 shall apply.- ...
Commutation of Death Sentence to Life Imprisonment
From the date the Law No. 12/2017/QH14 amending and supplementing certain articles of Criminal Code 100/2015/QH13 is announced, the following provisions shall continue to be implemented:
- The death penalty shall not be imposed when adjudicating offenders where the Criminal Code 2015 has abolished the death penalty, or for offenders aged 75 or older at the time of the offense or trial;- The death sentence for offenders aged 75 or older that has not yet been executed shall not be carried out and shall be commuted to life imprisonment;- For those sentenced to death but not yet executed and who meet the conditions stipulated in point c, clause 3 of Article 40 of the Criminal Code 2015, the death sentence shall not be executed and shall be commuted to life imprisonment;- Acts that the Criminal Code 1999 considers offenses but the Criminal Code 2015 does not, such as early marriage, false reporting in economic management, violations concerning the issuance of industrial property protection certificates, will not be prosecuted;- Persons aged 14 to under 16 will not face criminal proceedings for offenses not outlined in clause 2 of Article 12 and clause 3 of Article 14 of the Criminal Code 2015;- Those who have completed their sentence or have been exempted from serving their whole or remaining sentence in certain cases shall automatically have their criminal record expunged.
Refer to detailed instructions in Resolution 41/2017/QH14, effective from July 5, 2017, which replaces Resolution 109/2015/QH13 dated November 27, 2015.
