Vietnam ends death penalty for 8 crimes, may spare real estate tycoon

Vietnam has lifted the death penalty for eight crimes in legal reforms that may spare the life of a real estate tycoon imprisoned in the country’s largest financial fraud case.

The legal reforms in Vietnam ended the death penalty for eight crimes, including trying to overthrow the government, damaging state infrastructure, making and selling fake medicine, starting wars, spying, drug trafficking, embezzlement, and taking bribes.

Vietnamese lawmakers passed the reforms on Wednesday, according to state media.

Truong My Lan, sentenced to death for her involvement in Vietnam’s largest financial fraud case, will be eligible to have her sentence reduced after the reforms, her lawyer said Thursday.

The 67-year-old chair of the real estate company Van Thinh Phat who was facing execution for her involvement in fraud amounting to $12.5 billion — nearly 3% of the country’s 2022 GDP — will now be “eligible for the exemption for the death penalty” according to the new rules, her lawyer Phan Minh Hoang told The Associated Press.

See also:

• Vietnam Abolishes Death Penalty for Embezzlement and Other Crimes • The move, one official said, would help the country extradite suspects from abroad. It would also spare the life of a recently convicted tycoon. (New York Times)