No internal handling if party members must be prosecuted for criminal liability

The Chairman of the Central Inspection Commission, Tran Quoc Vuong, has just signed and issued Document No. 04-HD/UBKTTW guiding the implementation of a number of Articles in Regulation No. 102-QD/TW, dated November 15, 2017 of the Politburo on disciplinary action against violating party members. There are many provisions such as: Conclusions must be drawn based on evidence, no inferences; Party members who violate the law to the extent that they must be prosecuted for criminal liability must be prosecuted, no "internal handling", cases that have not been considered, disciplined, and no disciplinary action...

Clause 2, Article 1 of the guidelines stipulates: “Party members who are found to have committed violations after a business trip, leave of employment or retirement must still be examined and concluded; if the violation is serious enough to require disciplinary action, disciplinary action must be taken in accordance with the provisions of the Party Charter, the laws of the State and the contents stated in this Regulation.”

Party members who, after transferring jobs, quitting their jobs or retiring and have moved to a new party activity, discover violations at their previous party activity location that have not been reviewed and handled shall be reviewed and handled by the direct superior party organization of those party organizations according to regulations.

While considering and handling a party member who has violated the law, if the party organization where the party member is active is dissolved, merged, split or ceases operations, the competent party organization shall continue to consider and handle the matter or report to the party organization directly superior to that party organization to consider and handle disciplinary action against the party member according to regulations.

Regarding the principles of disciplinary action, Clause 3, Article 2 stipulates: "When considering and disciplining a Party member who violates the law, it is necessary to base on the content, nature, level, harm, cause of the violation, aggravating or mitigating circumstances, attitude towards accepting criticism and correcting, overcoming shortcomings, violations, consequences caused, goals and requirements of performing political tasks and Party building work"

Cdraw conclusions based on inspiration, no speculation

When considering and handling disciplinary action against a party member who violates the law, it is necessary to clarify the content, nature, extent, harm, motive, cause of the violation, aggravating and mitigating circumstances, and base it on the attitude of self-awareness, determination to correct shortcomings, violations and overcome the consequences caused, concluding on the basis of evidence, not making inferences. At the same time, it is necessary to consider the specific, objective and comprehensive historical circumstances in order to achieve the goals and requirements of political tasks and Party building work.

Party members who violate the disciplinary warning or are dismissed from office (if holding a position) in Clause 2 of Articles 7 to 34, the competent Party organization shall base on the above provisions to consider and decide specifically: Warning or dismissal from one, several or all positions in the Party for that Party member.

Party members who violate the rules are subject to disciplinary reprimand or warning. If they are deemed to no longer have sufficient prestige, the competent Party organization shall decide to dismiss them or propose to remove them from that position.

Party members violate the lawarrivecriminal prosecution must be prosecutedcriminal prosecution, not "internal handling"

Clause 5, Article 2 stipulates: “Party members who violate the law to the extent that they must be prosecuted for criminal liability must be prosecuted, not “handled internally”. If they are sentenced by a court to a non-custodial reform sentence or higher, they must be expelled; if they are sentenced to a sentence lower than non-custodial reform or are exempted from criminal liability, or are subject to administrative sanctions, then depending on the content, level, nature, harm, cause of the violation and aggravating or mitigating circumstances, party discipline will be considered and implemented appropriately.

When Party committees, standing committees of Party committees and inspection committees from district level and above discover that Party members have committed violations to the extent that criminal liability must be prosecuted, they must transfer the case to the competent judicial agency for consideration and handling, and must not retain it for internal handling.

If a Party member who violates the law is being handled by a competent law enforcement agency according to the provisions of the law, the Party organization must not intervene so that the Party member is only subject to Party disciplinary action, not criminal prosecution or administrative or union action.

Within 15 days from the date the court's verdict sentencing a party member to non-custodial reform or higher takes legal effect, the court must send a copy of the verdict to the Party Committee, the Party Committee Standing Committee or the Party Committee Inspection Committee managing the party member. Based on the content of the verdict, the Inspection Committee shall decide or propose that the Party Committee or the Party Committee Standing Committee decide to take disciplinary action to expel the party member according to regulations.

The statute of limitations for disciplinary action is calculated from the time of the violation.

Clause 1, Article 3 stipulates: “The statute of limitations for Party disciplinary action is the time limit prescribed in this Regulation, after which a Party member who commits a violation will not be subject to disciplinary action.”

Any Party member who commits a violation at any time must be examined, clarified, concluded and voted on by the competent Party organization for a specific form of discipline. Then, based on the voting results and compared with the regulations on the statute of limitations for disciplinary action, a decision will be made to enforce or not to enforce discipline on the violating Party member.

For example: Party member A committed a violation more than 10 years ago when the disciplinary review was considered. The competent Party organization, after reviewing the content, nature, and level of the violation, voted to decide on disciplinary action with the result being a warning. Compared with the regulations on disciplinary statute of limitations, at the time of the disciplinary decision, the disciplinary statute of limitations had expired, so that Party member would not be subject to Party disciplinary action. In the case where the voting result was in the form of expulsion, compared with the regulations on statute of limitations, that Party member would be disciplined by expulsion.

Point b, Clause 1, Article 3: “The statute of limitations for disciplinary action is calculated from the time of the violation. If during the disciplinary action period prescribed in Point a of this Clause, a Party member commits a new violation, the statute of limitations for disciplinary action for the old violation shall be recalculated from the time of the new violation.”

For example: Party member A committed a violation on May 2, 2015 and is still within the disciplinary statute of limitations. If on September 8, 2017, he commits a new violation, the statute of limitations for the old violation will be recalculated from September 8, 2017. The competent Party organization will review each violation and make a general decision on a disciplinary measure.

- The statute of limitations for disciplinary action is calculated from the time of the violation to the time the competent party organization issues a decision to inspect and consider disciplining the party member; in case of continuous violations, the statute of limitations is calculated from the time the violation ends.

For example: Party member A has committed continuous violations for a period of 3 years (from March 8, 2013 to March 8, 2016), and has only recently been discovered to have committed violations during that period, the statute of limitations is calculated from the time the violations ended on March 8, 2016 until the competent party organization decides to inspect and consider discipline.

The statute of limitations shall not be recalculated for party members who have been disciplined but later the superior party organization decides again (to approve, increase or decrease) the disciplinary measure against that party member.

For example: Party member A is disciplined with a reprimand, that party member appeals to higher-level party organizations; the party organization that resolves the appeal finally decides to approve the disciplinary action of reprimand against that party member (the time from the time of the violation to the time of the final decision to resolve the appeal is over 5 years), because the statute of limitations is not recalculated, that party member must still comply with the disciplinary decision of the higher-level party organization.

Cases not yet considered, disciplined and not disciplined

Clause 1, Article 5 stipulates: “Party members who commit violations while pregnant, on maternity leave, suffering from a serious illness or losing the ability to perceive, or being seriously ill and being treated as inpatients at a hospital as confirmed by a competent medical agency as prescribed by law (from district level or higher) shall not be considered for disciplinary action.”

-"Critical illness" is an illness that is life-threatening to the infected person as prescribed by a competent state agency.

-The above mentioned time of disciplinary review and handling is not counted in the statute of limitations for Party disciplinary handling.

For example: Party member A committed a violation 4 years ago. When the competent Party organization considered and disciplined him, he fell ill and had to be hospitalized. This treatment time is not counted in the statute of limitations for disciplinary action.

DIf a party member commits a particularly serious violation and dies, thenãn kitom tra, kunmarketableDisciplinary action and handling

Clause 2, Article 5 stipulates: "In case a Party member who has committed a violation has passed away, the Party organization shall consider, conclude, and not take disciplinary action, except in cases where the Party member has committed an especially serious disciplinary violation."

If a Party member dies and then a violation is discovered, no inspection will be conducted. When an inspection or disciplinary action is being considered and a Party member dies, only a conclusion will be made and no disciplinary action will be taken. If a Party member commits a particularly serious violation and dies, an inspection, conclusion, and disciplinary action will still be conducted.

In addition, the guidance on implementing a number of Articles in Regulation No. 102 also provides regulations when Party members violate the principle of democratic centralism, violate regulations on elections, violate organizational and personnel work, violate crime prevention and control work, violate complaints, denunciations and settlement of complaints and denunciations, violate regulations on marriage with foreigners,vviolating regulations on population policy, family planning...

This instruction takes effect from the date of signing, i.e. March 22, 2018./.