>>Revilement and slander prescribed in criminal laws of French-ruled Vietnam
>>Falsities in Criminal Laws of French-ruled Vietnam
Pham Diem
State and Law Research Institute
1. Murder
For this type of crime, the feudal legislators distinguished intentional murder from accidentally causing human death.
Article 280 of “Hoang Viet Hinh Luat” provided that a person would be charged with intentional murder when there exist one of the three following elements, despite whether the victim was still alive or dead:
- One or many persons engaged in pre-plotted murder.
- Using weapons which may cause human death.
- Dealing repeated heavy blows or beating victims at dangerous spots on their bodies.
For accidentally causing human death, this Article prescribed that the death was caused due to one’s clumsiness, negligence or carelessness.
According to Article 281, those who use poisons against other persons’ lives will also be charged with intentional murder; and those who know that someone has attempted to poison others but kept preparing or handing poisons to the former will be considered accomplices.
Under Article 282, those who intentionally murder other persons without plotting it in advance will be sentenced to hard labor for life while the accomplices to hard labor for between 15 and 20 years.
According to Article 283, those who commit intentional murders in the following circumstances will be sentenced to death, for the principals, or life penal servitude, for the accomplice:
- Committing the crime before, after or simultaneously with another grave offense.
- Committing the crime with deliberate attempt or in an organized manner.
- Committing the crime in order to conceal other offenses.
- Murdering people in a barbarous manner.
Meanwhile, Article 284 prescribed special cases of committing crimes, for which the principals will receive the capital punishment while the accomplice the life penal servitude:
- Deliberate murder of husbands by their first wives or concubines, of wives by their husbands, of parents by their children, of grandparents by their grandchildren, of one’s own next-of-kin.
- Deliberate murder of officials.
- Deliberate murder of masters by their servants, or of teachers by their own students.
- Castrating or poisoning other persons.
- Cutting bodies of living persons for use as drugs or amulets.
- Killing persons then cutting their bodies into pieces.
For the crimes of killing one’s own children or one’s own grandchildren, Article 285 provided that the principals will be sentenced to hard labor for between 6 and 10 years while the accomplices will be imprisoned for between 4 and 5 years.
According to Article 298, those who accidentally cause human death due to their clumsiness, negligence or carelessness will be jailed for between 3 months and 3 years or fined with between 30 and 360 piasters.
2. Crimes of beating other persons
According to Clause 2, Article 285 of “Hoang Viet Hinh Luat,” those children or grandchildren who are beaten by their parents or grandparents but hit them back will be jailed for between 1 and 3 years or fined with 120 to 360 piasters, for the principals, or imprisoned for 10 months or fined with 100 piasters, for the accomplices.
Article 287 provided that if wives beat their husbands, children beat their parents and grandchildren beat their grandparents to injury, the culprits shall be sentenced to hard labor for between 15 and 20 years, if they are principals, or for between 6 and 10 years, if they are accomplices.
Meanwhile, according to Article 288, if husbands beat their first wives or concubines to injury, they shall be jailed for between 3 and 5 years and such penalty shall be halved for the accomplices.
So, the feudal law-makers based themselves on the relationships between the culprits and the victims, the degree of injury, the number of culprits, the intentional beating or accidental causing of injury by the culprits,… to mete out penalties.
According to Article 291, those who deliberately beat other persons black and blue, to chapped skin or bleeding, shall be jailed for between 1 month and 2 years or fined with between 10 and 240 piasters. If many persons join the beating without pre-discussion or pre-connivance, they shall be sentenced to 4 months in jail or a fine of 40 piasters, for the principals, or 2 months in jail or a fine of 20 piasters, for the accomplices. If they have discussed and planned the offense in advance, they shall be sentenced to 6 months in jail, for the principals, or 4 months in jail, for the accomplices.
Under Article 292, those who use filthy things to disgrace others or shave other persons’ heads to humiliate them or physically hurt other persons shall be sentenced for between 8 months and 3 years in jail and their accomplices shall be jailed for between 4 and 7 months. If many persons commit such an offense with connivance in advance, they shall all be sentenced to between 1 and 3 years in jail, regardless of whether they are principals or accomplices.
Those who deliberately beat other persons, causing broken arms or legs, blindness or cripple to the victims, shall be sentenced to hard labor for between 6 and 8 years, for the principals, or between 1 and 3 years, for the accomplices. If their victims die of such injuries, the penalties shall be raised to between 10 and 15 years of hard labor for the principals and between 8 to 10 years of penal servitude for the accomplices (Article 293).
According to Article 295, anyone who deliberately gives an object or a thing to another person in order to harm the latter’s health or make him/her ill, shall be jailed for between 2 months and 5 years. If the victim gets sick, the culprit shall be sentenced to hard labor for between 6 and 10 years.
Particularly, Article 289 provided that those who use drugs or other means to cause miscarriage shall be sentenced to hard labor for between 5 and 10 years, regardless of whether the pregnant women agree or not. If such women so consent, the women shall be jailed for between 3 and 5 years.
The crime of accidentally causing injuries to other persons were specified largely in Clause 2 of Article 298 under which sinners shall be subject to a prison term of between 1 and 6 months or a fine of between 10 and 60 piasters, if the crime was committed due to their clumsiness, negligence or carelessness. If the victims get crippled, the culprits shall be sentenced to between 3 months and 2 years in jail or a fine of between 30 and 240 piasters. If many persons commit a crime, the above-said penalties shall be halved for the accomplices.-