Vietnamese property tycoons will no longer face executions due to fraud totaling $27 billion.
Giang Hong Thanh, a lawyer for real estate developer Truong My LAN, told AFP that her death penalty “will be transformed into life imprisonment…I told Ms. Lan this morning that she was happy.”
Vietnam abolished the death penalty for eight crimes on Wednesday, including spy, grafting and crimes attempting to overthrow the government, according to state media reports.
Lan, 68, was convicted last year of money from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) (compensation that prosecutors say she is under control) and was sentenced to death for fraud, totaling $27 billion, equaling 6% of the country’s GDP.
She appealed the sentence during a month-long trial, but in December, a Ho Chi Minh City court determined that there was no “no basis” to reduce the sentence.
But the court said that if the LAN returns three-quarters of the stolen assets, its sentence can be reduced to life imprisonment.
“If Ms. Lan makes up for three-quarters of the losses and some other conditions, she will continue to consider further reducing her sentence,” the attorney said Wednesday.
LAN “is still actively working with state agencies in Vietnam and its partners to find ways to deal with (her) assets and reorganize the SCB to ultimately resolve the case.”
LAN is only 5% of SCB shares on paper, but the court concluded that she effectively controlled over 90% through her family, friends and employees.
Thousands of people invested in savings in banks and lost money, prompting rare protests in communist countries.
In another $17 billion money laundering case, LAN was sentenced to 30 years in life imprisonment in an April appeal.
Under the revised criminal law approved by the National Assembly on Wednesday, eight offences no longer punished for death, including misappropriation of property companies and bribery.
Under Vietnamese law, he was sentenced to death for eight crimes (including espionage and anti-state activities) before converting his sentence to the sentence of the Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court on July 1.
“The current death penalty structure is problematic and in some cases missed due to the evolving socio-economic situation and the reality of crime prevention,” said Luong Tam Quang, Minister of Public Safety.
One of the reasons for the move proposed by Attorney General nguyen hai ninh is that in most cases people have not actually executed those sentenced to death for the above crimes.
No public executions have been made, but Amnesty International estimates that by the end of 2024, there will be more than 1,200 death cells in Vietnam.
