Improve the quality of trials, prevent wrongful convictions and avoid letting criminals escape.

On the morning of January 16, Nghe An Provincial People's Court held a conference to deploy work in 2018. Attending were Comrade Bui Ngoc Hoa - Judge of the Supreme People's Court; leaders of the General Department, the Department of Emulation and Commendation of the Supreme People's Court; Comrade Phan Duc Dong - Member of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee, Head of the Provincial Party Committee's Internal Affairs Committee; Leaders of the Provincial Police, Provincial People's Procuracy, Judgment Execution Department, Fire Police...

In 2017, the People's Court at two levels of Nghe An province accepted more than 10,600 cases of all kinds, resolved 10,184 cases, reaching a rate of 95.7%. Administrative measures were applied at the Court to 1,651/1,651 accepted cases, reaching a rate of 100%. Regarding criminal cases, the People's Court at two levels tried 2,292 cases/3,913 defendants at first instance; tried 267 cases/360 defendants at appeal, reaching a rate of 95%.

Reporting at the conference, the leader of the Provincial People's Court said that through the trial work in 2017, the crime situation continued to develop complicatedly, murder crimes decreased but not significantly, intentional injury crimes and human trafficking crimes continued to increase; the number of drug crimes was still large, the number of gambling, gambling, fraud, abuse of trust to appropriate property, debt collection cases accounted for a large proportion, causing anxiety and insecurity among the people.

Chief Justice of Nghe An Provincial People's Court, Mr. Ho Dinh Trung reports on work results in 2017. Photo: Pham Bang

The Provincial People's Court affirmed that criminal cases generally tried by the People's Courts at two levels are correct in terms of the right person, the right crime, and the law; there are no cases of wrongful conviction of innocent people, and no criminals are left at large. The punishments for the defendants are guaranteed to be strict and in accordance with the law, meeting the requirements of the fight against crime and law violations, and having the effect of deterring, suppressing, and preventing crime in the current situation.

Regarding civil cases, the People's Court at two levels has resolved 7,368 cases at first instance and 131 cases at appeal. The civil cases were resolved and tried by the court in accordance with legal regulations, generally in a reasonable and sympathetic manner, and most of them received high public approval. The People's Court at two levels has resolved 110 cases at first instance of administrative cases, focusing on organizing dialogues between the plaintiff and the defendant, and many cases after the dialogue, the plaintiff withdrew the petition. It has accepted and resolved 1,651 cases with dossiers requesting the application of administrative measures; issued decisions to execute criminal sentences for 3,480 defendants; considered exemptions and reductions of State budget payments for 342 cases with a total amount of more than 1.8 billion VND.

Nguyen Van Oai's trial on two charges of "Resisting a person on official duty" and "Failure to comply with a judgment". Photo: PV

Despite achieving many positive results, the People's Court at level 2 of Nghe An province frankly acknowledged a number of shortcomings and deficiencies in the work of resolving and adjudicating cases, such as: Slow issuance of detention orders, slow sending of judgments and decisions to the People's Procuracy. At the same time, the return of files for additional investigation with unconvincing reasons, and unclear judgments and decisions still cause difficulties for the enforcement of judgments.

The rate of resolving civil and administrative cases is still low, some civil and administrative cases are resolved slowly due to the increasing number of cases. The quality of adjudication still has a rate of cases being annulled or amended; there are still officials violating the law.

Entering 2018, the People's Courts at 2 levels of Nghe An province strive to have 100% of cases resolved on time; 90% or more of criminal cases resolved; 85% or more of civil cases resolved; 80% or more of administrative cases resolved; 99% or more of administrative measures considered and decided at court; lower the rate of judgments and decisions annulled or amended due to subjective errors of judges than in 2017; no wrongful convictions or omissions of criminals, in accordance with legal regulations, minimizing the occurrence of civil judgments that are overdue according to regulations, unclear pronouncements, difficult to enforce...

Speaking at the conference, Comrade Bui Ngoc Hoa - former Permanent Deputy Chief Justice, Judge of the Supreme People's Court highly appreciated the results that the Nghe An 2-level People's Court has achieved and proposed to overcome existing problems and difficulties to continue to complete the set targets.

Supreme People's Court Judge Bui Ngoc Hoa requested the People's Courts at 2 levels in Nghe An province to improve the quality of trials, to prevent wrongful convictions and to prevent criminals from escaping. Photo: Pham Bang

The Supreme People's Court Judge emphasized that from 2018, the People's Courts at all levels will not organize mobile trials in informal locations; organize court sessions in the direction of judicial reform, enhancing the right to litigate in court; publicly announce judgments on the People's Court's electronic information portal to improve judgment capacity and responsibility, create conditions for people to participate in monitoring and enforcing judgments; improve the effectiveness of mediation work; continue to organize more effective experience-sharing sessions, and prevent officials from violating the law.

The Nghe An People's Court at two levels also needs to focus on strictly trying criminal cases, especially economic and corruption cases; the punishment that the Court applies to the defendants must be commensurate with the nature and level of the crime, meeting the requirements of the fight against crime.

On this occasion, collectives and individuals of the People's Court of Nghe An province at level 2 were awarded titles by the President, the Government and the Provincial People's Committee.

Supreme People's Court Judge Bui Ngoc Hoa, authorized to award the Third Class Labor Medal to outstanding individuals. Photo: Pham Bang

Supreme People's Court Judge Bui Ngoc Hoa, authorized by the Prime Minister, awarded the Emulation Flag to a collective. Photo: Pham Bang

Head of the Provincial Party Committee's Internal Affairs Committee, Mr. Phan Duc Dong, authorized to present the Emulation Flag of the Supreme People's Court to the collectives of the 2-level People's Courts of Nghe An province. Photo: Pham Bang