JOINT CIRCULAR No. 05/TTLN On the investigation, prosecution, and simultaneous trial at first instance and final instance of certain particularly serious cases

JOINT CIRCULAR

||| Joint Circular No. 05/TTLN of the Supreme People's Procuracy, Ministry of Interior, and Ministry of Justice

||| dated December 22, 1982 on investigation, prosecution, and trial of certain serious cases

||| simultaneously at first instance and final instance

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||| Currently, the enemy is intensively conducting multifaceted sabotage wars against our country. Four types of criminal offenses, hooligans and ruffians, profiteers, smugglers producing fake goods, are operating extremely openly, in some places they even use weapons to kill and rob. Their activities have caused severe harm to political security, state assets, lives and property of citizens, and the situation demands timely and resolute severe punishment of particularly serious offenders to ensure political security, economic stability, and social order.

||| Article 21 of the Law on Organization of the People's Courts stipulates that the Supreme People's Court has jurisdiction to try simultaneously at first instance and final instance "serious cases"... Therefore, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuracy, the Ministry of Interior, and the Ministry of Justice issue this circular guiding the investigation, prosecution, and trial simultaneously at first instance and final instance of certain serious cases as follows:

||| I. CASES TO BE TRIED SIMULTANEOUSLY AT FIRST INSTANCE AND FINAL INSTANCE

||| SIMULTANEOUSLY AT FIRST INSTANCE AND FINAL INSTANCE

||| When the Supreme People's Court tries simultaneously at first instance and final instance, the judgment cannot be appealed or protested through the appellate procedure, therefore, it is necessary to carefully consider when deciding cases to be tried under this procedure.

||| Cases for which the Supreme People's Court will try simultaneously at first instance and final instance must meet all four conditions below:

||| 1. The defendant commits particularly serious crimes, infringing upon political security, socialist property or private property of citizens, health and lives of citizens, causing great public indignation and requiring strict and timely punishment, for example: Very dangerous counter-revolutionary activities; profiteering and smuggling; large-scale production of fake goods with destructive economic characteristics; serious corruption; killing and robbing; killing state officials to obstruct supervision or investigation, etc.

||| 2. The defendants are counter-revolutionaries, hooligans and ruffians, illegal businessmen, state officials who have degenerated.

||| 3. In the case, there should not be too many defendants and the evidence must be clear and complete, without any doubt about the crime.

||| 4. The severity of the crime of one or more defendants is particularly serious, requiring the highest form of punishment.

||| For cases that do not meet the above four conditions, even if they are serious, provincial and centrally governed city People's Courts still prosecute and try according to the usual procedures.

||| In Ho Chi Minh City, the Special People's Court established by Decision No. 38/QHK6 dated November 24, 1976 of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly still handles serious cases concerning social order according to the authority prescribed by law.

||| II. INVESTIGATION, FILE COMPLETION, PROSECUTION, AND TRIAL

||| 1. Immediately after the case occurs, if preliminary investigation shows that it is a particularly serious case, the provincial, centrally governed city, or special zone public security department shall immediately inform the People's Procuracy and the Supreme People's Court at the same level. Southern provinces must also send a copy to the representative of the sector stationed in Ho Chi Minh City.

||| At the central level, the Ministry of Interior will promptly inform the Supreme People's Procuracy of particularly serious cases occurring in localities so that the three agencies can promptly exchange information about cases to be tried simultaneously at first instance and final instance and proactively direct investigation, prosecution, and trial.

||| 2. The three agencies at the provincial, centrally governed city, or special zone levels need to closely coordinate their work to quickly complete the file, exchange views on whether the case falls within the category needing simultaneous first and final instance trials, and report to seek the opinion of the local Party committee. If the Party committee agrees that the case needs to be tried simultaneously at first and final instance, each agency shall submit a report along with the investigative conclusion of the public security agency to the higher-level sector in the central government.

||| If issues arise or disagreements occur during file preparation or discussion of handling principles, local agencies must immediately report to seek guidance from central agencies. Conversely, if deemed necessary, central agencies will also proactively guide local agencies on handling principles or work measures.

||| 3. The trial simultaneously at first instance and final instance must be agreed upon by the three sectors at the central level and the local Party committee. Thereafter, depending on the location where the case occurred, the Prosecutor General of the Supreme People's Procuracy working in Hanoi, Da Nang, or Ho Chi Minh City holds the prosecution role before the court representing the Supreme People's Procuracy. The public security agency of the province, centrally governed city, or special zone sends the file and investigative conclusion to the prosecution unit assigned to hold the prosecution role. That unit is responsible for drafting the indictment.

||| 4. The President of the Supreme People's Court may assign a judge of the Supreme People's Court working in Hanoi, Da Nang, or Ho Chi Minh City to preside over the trial. The case occurring in which region, people's assessors from that region participate in the trial. This panel represents the Criminal Division of the Supreme People's Court.

||| After the trial, the file and judgment must be immediately sent to the Supreme People's Court, while a copy of the judgment must be immediately sent to the Supreme People's Procuracy so that if the convicted person requests clemency for the death sentence, the President of the Supreme People's Court prepares a report and the Supreme People's Procuracy also reports its opinion to the State Council for consideration.