Van Thinh Phat case: How much must Ms. Truong My Lan overcome to escape the death penalty?

Regarding the final verdict of Ms. Truong My Lan, she still could not escape the death penalty. Recently, the lawyer spoke up and proposed remedial measures, clearly stating the level of severity to be able to escape the death penalty.

The defendant committed three crimes at the same time, causing negative public opinion. The court of first instance sentenced the defendant to death for embezzlement, 20 years in prison for bribery, and 20 years in prison for violating lending regulations in the operations of credit institutions, which was the right person and the right crime, without injustice.

At the appeal hearing, defendant Truong My Lan and other defendants, individuals and legal entities, paid additional compensation, and defendant Lan also voluntarily contributed many assets to remedy the consequences.

However, according to the panel of judges, these assets do not have sufficient legal basis to determine their value, and therefore there is not enough basis to determine that the defendant has remedied 3/4 of the consequences to apply a reduced sentence for the crime of embezzlement of property.

During the trial, the defendant also had a profound change in awareness, repentance and many other mitigating circumstances, so the panel of judges accepted the opinion of the People's Procuracy to reduce part of the defendant's sentence for the crime of violating regulations on lending in the activities of credit institutions.

Therefore, the court accepted the appeal to reduce the sentence from 20 years to 16 years in prison for this crime, but kept the sentence for the remaining two crimes. Combining the sentences, the panel of judges ordered the defendant Truong My Lan to serve the death sentence.

Regarding civil liability, the panel of judges maintained its position that Ms. Lan must be obligated to compensate a total of more than 673,000 billion VND - the outstanding debt of the loans up to the time of prosecution.

At the same time, the court continued to seize and freeze assets related to Ms. Lan to ensure the execution of the judgment. The court also rejected her appeal to waive more than 600 billion VND in court fees.

Doctor of Law Dang Van Cuong, Head of Chinh Phap Law Office, said that according to Article 40 of the 2015 Penal Code, the death penalty is a special punishment only applied to people who commit particularly serious crimes in one of the groups of crimes against national security, crimes against human life, crimes related to banned substances, corruption and a number of other particularly serious crimes prescribed by this Code.

The law also stipulates that the death penalty shall not be applied to persons under 18 years of age when committing a crime, pregnant women, women raising children under 36 months of age, or persons 75 years of age or older when committing a crime or at trial.

In addition, the death sentence shall not be carried out on a convicted person if he/she falls into one of the following cases: Pregnant women or women raising children under 36 months of age; People 75 years of age or older.

It is worth noting that, according to Mr. Cuong, the 2015 Penal Code stipulates that the death sentence will not be carried out on those sentenced to death for embezzlement or bribery, who, after being sentenced, proactively returned at least three-quarters of the embezzled or bribed property and actively cooperated with authorities in detecting, investigating, and handling crimes or making great achievements.

This will be an opportunity to escape the death penalty for some criminals when they have overcome most of the consequences and made great achievements. However, if they only overcome the consequences without the additional circumstance of cooperating with the authorities in detecting and handling crimes, the penalty level will not be changed.

Therefore, after being sentenced to death, if Ms. Truong My Lan returns at least three-quarters of the embezzled assets and has to actively cooperate with the authorities in detecting, investigating, and handling crimes or making great achievements, she will have a chance to escape the death sentence.

Or in case the convicted person submits a petition to the President requesting clemency and the President agrees, the death penalty may also be converted to life imprisonment according to the provisions of law.

Ms. Truong My Lan was stunned to hear the death penalty proposal and was given the opportunity to see her daughter again Trí Nhi13:30:18 21/03/2024After hearing the death penalty recommendation, defendant Truong My Lan - the key figure in the Van Thinh Phat case - collapsed and suffered a mental breakdown. She also had the opportunity to see her daughter again, as a privilege.