Part Five
EXECUTION OF COURT JUDGMENTS AND DECISIONS

Chapter XXVI
EXECUTION OF DEATH PENALTY

Article 258. Procedures for consideration of death judgments before execution
1. After the death judgments become legally valid, the case files must be immediately sent to the President of the Supreme People’s Court and the judgments must be immediately sent to the Chairman of the Supreme People’s Procuracy.
Within two months after receiving the judgments and case files, the President of the Supreme People’s Court and the Chairman of the Supreme People’s Procuracy shall have to decide to protest or not to protest against the judgments according to cassation or reopening procedures.
Within seven days after the judgments become legally valid, the convicts may send amnesty petitions to the State President.

2. Death judgments shall be executed if they are not protested against by the President of the Supreme People’s Court and the Chairman of the Supreme People’s Procuracy according to cassation or reopening procedures.
Where the death judgments are protested against according to cassation or reopening procedures but the cassation trial panel or the reopening trial panel of the Supreme People’s Court decides to reject such protests and retain the death judgments, the Supreme People’s Court must immediately notify the convicts thereof so that the latter can make petitions for commutation of their death penalties.
Where the convicts have made petitions for commutation of their death penalties, the death penalties shall be executed after the State President rejects their petitions.

Article 259. Execution of death penalty
1. The presidents of the courts which have conducted first-instance trials shall issue execution decisions and set up the councils for execution of death penalty, each consisting of representatives of the court, procuracy and police. The judgment-executing councils must check the identity cards of the convicts before executing the judgments.
Where the convicts are women, before issuing decisions to execute the judgments, the presidents of the courts which have conducted first-instance trials shall have to examine the conditions for non-application of death penalty, prescribed in Article 35 of the Penal Code. If there are grounds that the convicts meet the conditions prescribed in Article 35 of the Penal Code, the presidents of the courts which have conducted first-instance trial shall not issue decisions to execute the judgments and report such to the President of the Supreme People’s Court for consideration and commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment for the convicts.
Before executing women convicts, the judgment-executing councils shall, apart from checking their identity cards, have to check the documents related to the conditions for non-application of the death penalty prescribed in Article 35 of the Penal Code.
Where the judgment-executing councils detect that the convicts meet the conditions prescribed in Article 35 of the Penal Code, they shall postpone the execution and report such to the presidents of the courts which have conducted first-instance trial for reporting to the President of the Supreme People’s Court for consideration and commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment for the convicts.

2. Before the execution, the convicts must be handed and read the decisions to execute the judgments, decisions not to protest against the judgments, made by the President of the Supreme People’s Court and decisions not to protest against the judgments, made by the Chairman of the Supreme People’s Procuracy; if the convicts have made petitions for commutation of their death penalty, they must be handed and read the State President’s decisions to reject their commutation petitions.

3. Death penalties shall be executed by shooting.

4. The execution of death penalty must be recorded in a minutes which must clearly state the handing of decisions to the convicts for reading, their words, correspondence and articles they have left to their relatives.

5. In special circumstances, the judgment-executing councils shall postpone the execution and report such to the presidents of the courts which have issued the execution decisions for further reporting to the President of the Supreme People’s Court.

GENERAL PART

Chapter V PENALTIES

Article 35.- Death penalty

Death penalty is a special penalty only applied to persons committing particularly serious crimes.
Death penalty shall not apply to juvenile offenders, pregnant women and women nursing children under 36 months old at the time of committing crimes or being tried.
Death penalty shall not apply to pregnant women and women nursing their children under 36 months old. For these cases, the death penalty shall be converted into life imprisonment.
In cases where persons sentenced to death enjoy commutation, the death penalty shall be converted into life imprisonment.

GENERAL PART

Chapter XXIV
CRIMES OF UNDERMINING PEACE, AGAINST HUMANITY AND WAR CRIMES

Article 341.- Undermining peace, provoking aggressive wars

Those who propagate and/or incite wars of aggression, or prepare, carry out or participate in wars of aggression against the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of another country, shall be sentenced to between twelve years and twenty years of imprisonment, life imprisonment or capital punishment.


Article 342.- Crimes against mankind

Those who, in peace time or war time, commit acts of annihilating en-mass population in an area, destroying the source of their livelihood, undermining the cultural and spiritual life of a country, upsetting the foundation of a society with a view to undermining such society, as well as other acts of genocide or acts of ecocide or destroying the natural environment, shall be sentenced to between ten years and twenty years of imprisonment, life imprisonment or capital punishment.


Article 343.- War crimes

Those who, in time of war, give the order for or directly undertake the murder of civilians, wounded persons, prisoners of war, the looting of property, the destruction of population quarters, the use of banned war means or methods, and/or commit other acts in serious violation of international laws or international treaties which Vietnam has signed or acceded to, shall be sentenced to between ten years and twenty years of imprisonment, life imprisonment or capital punishment.