Create more opportunities for corruption to run rampant
Mr. Le Minh Tri – Procurator-General of the Supreme People’s Procuracy proposed for wrongful officials to pay remedial money to avoid criminal trial when participating in the conference to review 10-year anti-corruption works on the morning of June 30, 2022.
The proposal of the Procurator General of the Supreme People’s Procuracy, according to lawyer Dang Dinh Manh when speaking to RFA from Saigon on July 1, “seems to create a more favorable environment for corruption…”:
“I am really shocked at Mr. Le Minh Tri’s proposal. Because he is advocating applying separate regulations for corruption-convicted officials in the direction of leniency for criminals. This is completely contrary to all efforts to ensure the equal rights of all citizens before the law recognized under the Constitution and the Criminal Code.
Not only from a legal perspective, but in fact, Mr. Tri’s proposal seems to create a more favorable environment for corruption to run rampant in society. Because corrupted officials know well, keep corrupt, if discovered, just return it and get rid of the crime!
Therefore, I hope Mr. Le Minh Tri’s proposal will not be approved to become a policy.”
However, to argue that the above proposal is grounded and completely reasonable, Mr. Tri said that by following his proposal, the state will recover most of the property. In addition, according to Mr. Tri, in this way, the Party and State leaders will not have to worry much about dealing with their cadres and comrades like General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong once “lamented” when Mr. Chu Ngoc Anh and Nguyen Thanh Long were taken into custody and prosecuted: “I don’t like having to discipline my comrades and teammates. It’s very sad, I have said this many times, but I have to do it. …”
Commenting on the same topic, journalist Nguyen Vu Binh, who used to work at Communist Journal, told RFA on July 1, 2022:
“The issue of paying remedial fees so as not to be criminally handled, it is almost as if the corrupt person will not suffer. Because during their working life, they were corrupt a lot, but the negligence revealed was not much only one or two cases. Maybe it’s just small cases compared to the whole corruption process, for example, the remedial money for that case is only five or ten billion, while in other cases thousands of billions of money and they have no responsibilities. During their work, if they don’t have money, how can they get promoted. So this goes against the anti-corruption spirit of punishment and deterrence, and there must be a death sentence as General Chung said. Instead of backing down by using money to fix the consequences, they have gained a lot from corruption and the sum they have to pay back is only a part of their assets gained from corruption.”
Going against the rule of law
The Criminal Code 2015 in clause C Article 40 on the death penalty stipulates that the person sentenced to death for embezzlement of property, the crime of accepting bribes that, after being convicted, has actively paid back at least 75% of the embezzlement assets, accepting bribes and actively cooperating with authorities in the investigation will not be sentenced to the death sentence. This law was previously only applied to corrupt officials who were sentenced to death but has since been amended by Resolution 3/2020 and from February 15, 2021, regardless of the prison sentence. Any corruption will be eligible for non-execution of the maximum sentence of the framework if three-quarters of the corrupt assets are returned.
Although Resolution 3/2020 only helps corrupt officials to escape the death penalty, when responding to RFA at the time this Resolution is about to take effect, lawyer Ngo Anh Tuan from Hanoi said that (we quote again) :
“It is possible that this regulation was introduced to encourage others to return embezzled assets so that the state can recover that money. However, I think it’s a way for corrupted officials to avoid being sentenced to death. If the law is correct, it is a wrong regulation.”
Going back to the proposal of the Procurator General of the Supreme People’s Procuracy Le Minh Tri on June 30th about letting wrongful cadres pay remedial money to avoid being prosecuted criminally, many people also think that if this proposal is a successful policy will push the fight against corruption back to the starting position.
Responding to RFA from Norway on July 1, 2022, Dr. Nguyen Huy Vu commented:
“According to the principle of the rule of law, all individuals are equal before the law. If a person is violated, no matter who they are, they are subject to the same legal sanctions as everyone else. Corruption is a crime according to the law. And corrupt people must therefore be penalized in accordance with the spirit of the rule of law.”
Dr. Nguyen Huy Vu said that Mr. Tri’s proposal represents a mindset that goes against the principle of the rule of law. If officials who commit corruption are entitled to pay money to remedy the situation and will not be criminalized, outside the society, thieves also have the right to return the property to remedy the consequences for the victim (!?).
Dr. Vu thereby emphasizes that a society where everyone has the right to pay money to avoid prosecution for his or her illegal actions will eventually lead to a lawless society. Mr. Vu concluded:
“The General Prosecutor could argue that the payment system for redress of violations of the law is only for officials, and as such, he officially recognizes that the ruling class belongs to a different class, the upper class is more equal, more privileged even before the law, while the people below are of a different class subject to a harsher rule.”
In short, according to Dr. Nguyen Huy Vu, the Procurator’s thinking is the thinking of the party right – the communist party and its members will have their own privileges – it goes against the rule of law which upholds the spirit of rule of law and equality before the law of all citizens.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
