Overview

• The National Assembly ratified amendments removing the death penalty for eight offences including property embezzlement, espionage, graft and sabotage.
• Under the new law, those sentenced to death for these crimes before July 1 will automatically have their sentences converted to life imprisonment by the Supreme People’s Court.
• Property developer Truong My Lan, initially handed a death sentence for a $27 billion fraud at Saigon Commercial Bank, will have her penalty commuted to life in prison.
• Lan’s legal team has proposed repaying up to three-quarters of the stolen assets, a move that could trigger consideration for further sentence reductions.
• Officials say the overhaul modernizes Vietnam’s penal code, aligns it with evolving socio-economic conditions and supports closer international legal cooperation.