Can people with serious illnesses have their suspended sentence reduced?

Reply:

According to Article 1 of Resolution 02/2018/NQ-HDTP of the Council of Judges of the Supreme People's Court: Suspended sentence is a measure of conditional exemption from serving a prison sentence, applied by the Court to criminals sentenced to imprisonment of no more than 03 years, based on the personal background of the criminal and mitigating circumstances, it is deemed unnecessary to force them to serve a prison sentence.

- Clause 4, Article 8, Resolution 02/2018/NQ-HDTP dated May 15, 2018 of the Council of Judges of the Supreme People's Court stipulates the conditions for shortening the probation period of a suspended sentence as follows: In case the person enjoying a suspended sentence has made merits or has a serious illness and meets all the conditions guided in Clause 1 of this Article, the Court may decide to shorten the remaining probation period.

+Accomplishing meritorious deeds is when a person serving a suspended sentence takes actions to help a competent state agency detect, arrest, and investigate a crime; saves another person in a dangerous situation or saves property worth over 50 million VND of the State, collectives, or citizens in a natural disaster, fire, epidemic, or accident; has an initiative confirmed by a competent state agency or has outstanding achievements in labor, study, combat, or work that are commended and confirmed by a competent state agency.

+ Having a serious illness is a case where a provincial hospital or a military hospital at the military region level or higher has concluded that the person serving a suspended sentence is suffering from a life-threatening illness that is difficult to treat, such as: End-stage cancer, cirrhosis with ascites, severe drug-resistant tuberculosis grade 4, paralysis, heart failure grade 3, kidney failure grade 4 or higher; HIV in the AIDS stage with opportunistic infections, unable to take care of himself/herself and at high risk of death.

Clause 1, Article 8, Resolution 02/2018/NQ-HDTP stipulatesDecision: A person enjoying a suspended sentence may have the District People's Court or Regional Military Court decide to shorten the probation period of the suspended sentence when all of the following conditions are met:

- Has served half of the probation period of the suspended sentence;

- There has been much progress shown by the fact that during the probation period, the person serving a suspended sentence has strictly complied with the law and obligations under the law.Law on Enforcement of Criminal Judgments;Actively study, work, correct mistakes or make achievements in production and labor, protect national security and be rewarded by competent state agencies.

- The People's Committee at the commune level, the agency or organization assigned to supervise and educate the person serving a suspended sentence may request in writing to shorten the probation period.