Director of Nghe An Police Department gives comments on 4 issues of amending the Penal Code

(Baonghean.vn) - On behalf of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province, delegate Nguyen Huu Cau - Director of the Provincial Police Department assessed that the project to amend and supplement a number of articles of the 2015 Penal Code (latest version) has absorbed and edited quite fully, much different from the recent old versions.

“In particular, the explanation, acceptance and revision of the National Assembly Standing Committee is very complete, clear and highly convincing. I appreciate the efforts of the Drafting Committee and support its adoption in this session,” said delegate Cau.

However, to contribute to the completion of the above important Law, the Director of Nghe An Provincial Police Department commented on 4 more issues.

National Assembly Delegate of Nghe An Province Nguyen Huu Cau. Photo courtesy

Criminal responsibility of persons from 14 years old to under 16 years old

This is an issue that was mentioned by delegate Nguyen Huu Cau in the previous session of the National Assembly with the opinion of not agreeing with the new regulation in Clause 2, Article 12, Penal Code (BLHS) 2015.

Before the National Assembly forum this afternoon, he compiled and analyzed: “In the 2015 Penal Code, there are 280 articles and 367 clauses regulating very serious intentional crimes and especially serious crimes, which according to the provisions of the 1999 Penal Code, these people should have been criminally prosecuted. However, according to the provisions of the 2015 Penal Code, only 28 crimes can be prosecuted (252 crimes are acquitted) and 74 clauses can be prosecuted (294 clauses are acquitted). Therefore, the deterrent and preventive effect on people from 14 to under 16 years old is seriously reduced.”

The delegate from Nghe An also stated that in the coming time, violations of the law by minors will increase and become more complicated and hopes that the National Assembly will share with the Government's functional agencies.

Concluding this issue, delegate Cau stated: "Up to this point, I still reserve my opinion, but in the situation of having to choose one of the two options that the drafting committee has proposed, I would like to choose option 1 of articles 12, 91, 93, 94, 95 and 100 of the draft law."

Inappropriate regulations on drug crimes

Regarding the circumstance of "Having been administratively handled for this act or having been convicted of this crime without having had the criminal record expunged but still violating" stipulated in point a, clause 1 of articles 249 (storage), 250 (transportation), 252 (appropriation), 253 (crime of storing, transporting, buying, selling or appropriating precursors used in the production of narcotics), delegate Nguyen Huu Cau said that such a provision has decriminalized and overlooked too many drug-related crimes.

To prove his argument, he gave an example: “Nguyen Van A has been administratively punished once for illegally transporting narcotics and has a previous conviction for illegally buying and selling narcotics, which has not been cleared. Now he was arrested by the police for illegally storing narcotics, but the amount is less than 0.1 gram. According to the new regulations as I mentioned above, Nguyen Van A does not commit the crime of illegally storing narcotics, because Nguyen Van A has not been administratively punished for storing narcotics and has no previous conviction for storing narcotics. This is unreasonable.”

The head of Nghe An province police analyzed that in practice, the acts of storing, transporting, and illegally trading narcotics are closely linked, are the basis for each other, and were previously regulated in the same law (Article 194 of the 1999 Penal Code). According to the provisions of Part II, Section 3, Subsection 3.7, Point a, Circular 17/2007 of the Ministry of Public Security - Ministry of Justice - Ministry of Justice - City, for the acts as I mentioned in the example above, Nguyen Van A must be prosecuted for the crime of "illegal possession of narcotics".

On the other hand, if we compare clause 1 of articles 249, 250, 252, 253 with clause 1 of article 259 on the crime of "Violating regulations on the management of narcotic substances, precursors, addictive drugs, and psychotropic drugs", we see that it is unfair and very contradictory. Article 259 expands the scope of criminal handling, stipulating that "Having been convicted of one of the drug crimes that has not had its criminal record expunged and still violates" instead of "having been convicted of this crime" and if we compare the crime of illegal possession, transportation, trading or appropriation of narcotic substances with the crime of theft, the crime of open appropriation of property, the drug crimes are much more serious. Meanwhile, the crime of theft, the crime of open appropriation of property is expanded to criminal handling with clause 1 stipulating the circumstance "Having been administratively handled for the act of appropriation or having been convicted for the act of appropriation".

From there, this delegate proposed that the drafting committee amend point a, clause 1 of articles 249, 250, 252, 253 in the direction of "Having been administratively handled for violating drug laws or having been convicted of one of the drug crimes, not having had the criminal record cleared but still violating".

Delegate Nguyen Huu Cau said that it is necessary to strictly regulate and narrow the concept of "dangerous weapons" in the draft law. Photo: Internet

Drug content testing

The drafting committee as well as the National Assembly Standing Committee accepted and agreed on the viewpoint of only appraising drug content to convert to mass or volume as a basis for criminal prosecution in 4 cases: (1) solid drugs dissolved in solution; (2) diluted liquid drugs; (3) opium use; (4) addictive drugs, psychotropic drugs.

But according to Mr. Nguyen Huu Cau, the above provisions in the National Assembly resolution are unreasonable. These are issues that most National Assembly deputies agree on, so he proposed to stipulate the above 4 cases directly in the Penal Code to ensure consistency and stability.

Crime of intentional infliction of injury

Regarding Clause 6, Article 134 on the crime of intentionally causing injury, which stipulates “Anyone who prepares dangerous weapons, acids, etc. to cause injury to another person”, delegate Cau proposed to rewrite it in full as “anyone who prepares dangerous weapons, dangerous acids…” and at the same time, the regulation on “dangerous weapons” must be guided more closely and narrowed by the Council of Judges of the Supreme Court, not as broad as Resolution No. 02/2003 and Resolution No. 01/2006 of the Council of Judges-TATC guiding the circumstance of “using dangerous weapons” according to Clause 1, Article 104 of the 1999 Penal Code.

Regarding some other issues due to lack of time to speak directly in the Hall, delegate Nguyen Huu Cau said he would transfer the content to the Drafting Committee.

Reporter - Contributor Group