Viet Nam
Practice Relating to Rule 135. Children
Section D. Death penalty on children
Viet Nam’s Penal Code (1999) provides that the death penalty “shall not apply to juvenile offenders … at the time of committing crimes or being tried”.
Viet Nam’s Criminal Code (2015), which includes war crimes, states:
Article 40. Death sentence
1. [The d]eath sentence is a special sentence imposed upon people committing extremely serious crimes that infringe national security, human life, drug-related crimes, corruption-related crimes, and some other extremely serious crimes defined by this Code.
2. [The death sentence] shall not be imposed upon juvenile offenders, women who are pregnant or raising children under 36 months of age, and people [who were] 75 years of age or older when they commit[ted] the crime or [at the time of] trial.
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4. In the cases specified in Clause 3 of this Article or [if] the death sentence is commuted, the death sentence shall be replaced with life imprisonment.
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Article 101. Determinate imprisonment
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2. If the punishment for a crime is life imprisonment or [the] death sentence as prescribed by law, the heaviest sentence imposed upon an offender aged from 14 to under 16 shall not exceed 12 years[.]