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| Mutual legal assistance in freezing accounts, seizing or confiscating and handling assets acquired through criminal activities would also be brought into law__Photo: Internet |
The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) has proposed a draft Law on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters which is expected to provide a wider scope of mutual legal assistance in criminal matters.
Accordingly, the draft allows proceeding-conducting persons of the requesting country to be present during the provision of mutual legal assistance in the requested country. Besides, persons in the requested country might also go to the requesting country to render support in the investigation or evidence supply.
Mutual legal assistance in freezing accounts, seizing or confiscating and handling assets acquired through criminal activities as well as tools and methods used for committing crimes would also be brought into law.
The draft is expected to have provisions on settlement of cases where foreign countries require the Vietnamese State to commit to refraining from imposing or to imposing but not executing the capital punishment as a condition for engaging in mutual legal assistance activities.
According to the MOJ, such issues are frequently encountered in the practice of mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, as well as in the negotiation and conclusion of agreements on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters. However, current Vietnamese legislation lacks provisions for addressing these issues.- (VLLF)
