Journal De Bruxelles - Vietnam tycoon will not face death penalty over $27 bn fraud: lawyer

Property developer Truong My Lan's lawyer Giang Hong Thanh told AFP that her death penalty "will be converted to life imprisonment... I informed Ms. Lan this morning, she is very happy."

Vietnam on Wednesday abolished the death penalty for eight crimes including espionage, graft and attempting to overthrow the government, according to state media.

Lan, 68, was convicted last year of swindling money from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) -- which prosecutors said she controlled -- and sentenced to death for fraud with damages totalling $27 billion -- equivalent to around six percent of the country's GDP.

She appealed the verdict in a month-long trial, but in December the court in Ho Chi Minh City determined that there was "no basis" to reduce her sentence.

But the court said Lan's sentence could be reduced to life imprisonment if she returned three quarters of the stolen assets.

"If Ms Lan compensates for three quarters of the losses along with some other conditions, she will continue to be considered for a further reduction of her sentence," lawyer Thanh said Wednesday.

Lan "is still actively cooperating with state agencies of Vietnam and her partners to find ways to deal with (her) assets and restructure SCB to come to a final solution to the case."

Lan owned just five percent of shares in SCB on paper but courts concluded that she effectively controlled more than 90 percent through family, friends and staff.

Tens of thousands of people who had invested their savings in the bank lost money, prompting rare protests in the communist nation.

In a separate $17 billion money-laundering case, Lan had a life imprisonment sentence cut to 30 years on appeal in April.

According to the amended penal code approved by the National Assembly Wednesday, the eight crimes no longer punishable by death include property embezzlement and bribe-taking.

Under Vietnamese law, those sentenced to death for the eight crimes -- which also include spying and anti-state activities -- before July 1 will have their sentences converted to life imprisonment by the chief judge of the Suprem People's Court.

Minister of Public Security Luong Tam Quang said "the current structure of capital punishment was problematic and, in some cases, misaligned with evolving socio-economic conditions and the realities of crime prevention."

One of the reasons for the move given by Minister of Justice Nguyen Hai Ninh was that in most cases people sentenced to death for the above crimes were not actually executed.

The number of executions has not been made public, but Amnesty International estimates more than 1,200 people were on death row in Vietnam by the end of 2024.

D.Verstraete--JdB