Vietnam
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
Data card
- Legal status
- Retentionist
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 0
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 0
- First news item in the archive
- JANUARY 1, 1999 · Since 1997, possession or smuggling at least 100g or...
- News items in the archive
- 784
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
Vietnam is classified as Retentionist in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 0 executions in the country, against 0 the year before. The archive holds 784 news items on Vietnam, from 1999 to today.
Latest news
- APRIL 28, 2001VietnamDEATH PENALTY
Five men were sentenced to death by a southern Vietnam...
Five men were sentenced to death by a southern Vietnam court in a trial of nine people accused of drug trafficking from Laos (2
- APRIL 25, 2001VietnamDEATH PENALTY
Vietnam voted against the resolution on the death penalty...
Vietnam voted against the resolution on the death penalty approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights on April 25, 2001 (2001/68)
- APRIL 12, 2001VietnamDEATH PENALTY
Vietnam President Tran Duc Luong commuted the death...
Vietnam President Tran Duc Luong commuted the death sentences for 13 inmates to life imprisonment
- APRIL 6, 2001VietnamDEATH PENALTY
Vietnamese dissidents in exile accused Hanoi of brutally...
Vietnamese dissidents in exile accused Hanoi of brutally repressing Christians and Buddhists, alleging hill tribe people were attacked and tortured to death after recent protests in the Central Highlands
- MARCH 24, 2001VietnamDEATH PENALTY
A Vietnamese court in Nam Dinh Province, sentenced...
A Vietnamese court in Nam Dinh Province, sentenced to death three defendants for trafficking two kg of heroin and five kg of opium
- MARCH 20, 2001VietnamDEATH PENALTY
At a conference on drug addiction, the Vietnam Labor...
At a conference on drug addiction, the Vietnam Labor Confederation reported that around 10,300 cases of drug trafficking, possession and use involving 19,500 culprits were found in the 1999-2000 period
- MARCH 20, 2001VietnamDEATH PENALTY
Judges in the southern Vietnamese provincial capital...
Judges in the southern Vietnamese provincial capital Ca Mau were chased out of court and beaten after failing to hand down a death sentence to a teenager found guilty of rape, robbery and murder
- MARCH 2, 2001VietnamDEATH PENALTY
Seven men were sentenced to death for drug trafficking...
Seven men were sentenced to death for drug trafficking and circulating counterfeit U
- DECEMBER 22, 2000VietnamDEATH PENALTY
A court in central Vietnam sentenced 43-year-old Lieutenant-Colonel...
A court in central Vietnam sentenced 43-year-old Lieutenant-Colonel Le Van Luen a former senior police officer, to death by firing squad for dealing in heroin, bringing the number of people sentenced to death for drug trafficking in 2000 to at least 49
- DECEMBER 6, 2000VietnamDEATH PENALTY
The Vietnamese journal An Ninh Thu Do (Police Journal)...
The Vietnamese journal An Ninh Thu Do (Police Journal) reported that during November the police division in charge of drug prevention and control of Hanoi City worked closely with public security units in districts and precincts to successfully handle 150
- NOVEMBER 28, 2000VietnamDEATH PENALTY
Deputy Nong Thai Nghiep from Thai Nguyen province criticized...
Deputy Nong Thai Nghiep from Thai Nguyen province criticized the judiciary for not carrying out the sentences issued by the courts
- NOVEMBER 27, 2000VietnamDEATH PENALTY
The Hanoi People's Court handed down five death sentences...
The Hanoi People's Court handed down five death sentences and six life imprisonment sentences to 11 defendants for involvement in a drug trafficking ring
- NOVEMBER 25, 2000VietnamDEATH PENALTY
A court in the commercial capital of Ho Chi Minh City...
A court in the commercial capital of Ho Chi Minh City sentenced a US national, also wanted by Belgian police, to death for heroin trafficking, just days after US President Bill Clinton's landmark visit
- NOVEMBER 24, 2000VietnamDEATH PENALTY
The People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City sentenced Bui...
The People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City sentenced Bui Huu Tai , 32, to death for involvement in drug trafficking
- OCTOBER 31, 2000VietnamDEATH PENALTY
The People's Court in northern Quang Ninh province...
The People's Court in northern Quang Ninh province opened a court hearing of the biggest narcotics trafficking case ever in the province
- OCTOBER 23, 2000VietnamDEATH PENALTY
The Ninh Binh People's Court handed down death sentence...
The Ninh Binh People's Court handed down death sentence to three defendants in the second biggest opium trafficking ring in the northern Ninh Binh province since the ring led by Nguyen Ngoc Phu was detected in 1999
- OCTOBER 16, 2000VietnamDEATH PENALTY
A Vietnamese court sentenced two men to death and another...
A Vietnamese court sentenced two men to death and another to life imprisonment for counterfeiting Vietnamese banknotes
- SEPTEMBER 22, 2000VietnamDEATH PENALTY
The five-day appeal court trying Vietnam's biggest...
The five-day appeal court trying Vietnam's biggest drug case in Nam Dinh province reached its verdict
- JULY 26, 2000VietnamDEATH PENALTY
The HCMC People's Court sentenced Tran Thi Hieu, 65,...
The HCMC People's Court sentenced Tran Thi Hieu, 65, former director of Ngoc Thao Co
- JULY 20, 2000VietnamDEATH PENALTY
A court in Ho Chi Minh City passed a death sentence...
A court in Ho Chi Minh City passed a death sentence on Nguyen Van Son, former deputy general director of the Gia Dinh Commercial Bank, for fraud
- JULY 12, 2000VietnamDEATH PENALTY
Dang Ngoc Chieu, who was prosecuted for circulating...
Dang Ngoc Chieu, who was prosecuted for circulating fake money in Hai Duong Province was sentenced to death while his two accomplices received life imprisonment
- MAY 3, 2000VietnamDEATH PENALTY
Vietnam expressed regret over Canada's decision to...
Vietnam expressed regret over Canada's decision to stop contacts with Hanoi at the level of ministries and agencies
- MAY 2, 2000VietnamDEATH PENALTY
The Canadian government froze all ministerial ties...
The Canadian government froze all ministerial ties with Vietnam to protest against the execution of Canadian citizen Nguyen Thi Hiep on drug smuggling charges on April 24
- APRIL 30, 2000VietnamDEATH PENALTY
A Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman said the Vietnamese...
A Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman said the Vietnamese government regretted the reaction from the Canadian government on the execution of Nguyen Thi Hiep
- APRIL 27, 2000VietnamDEATH PENALTY
Canada's foreign affairs minister, Lloyd Axworthy,...
Canada's foreign affairs minister, Lloyd Axworthy, said he was shocked and disappointed by Vietnam's decision to execute a Canadian woman
- APRIL 24, 2000VietnamDEATH PENALTY
Nguyen Thi Hiep, a Canadian citizen of Vietnamese origin...
Nguyen Thi Hiep, a Canadian citizen of Vietnamese origin was executed in Hanoi, where she was arrested in 1996 for drug trafficking, a court spokesmen said
- APRIL 6, 2000VietnamDEATH PENALTY
The Vietnam Committee for the Defence of Human Rights...
The Vietnam Committee for the Defence of Human Rights accused Vietnam of handing down "an increasing number of death sentences", reaching the "sad record" of 194 last year
- MARCH 30, 2000VietnamDEATH PENALTY
The Supreme People's Court upheld the lower court's...
The Supreme People's Court upheld the lower court's decision to impose the death sentence on Tang Binh, former director of Kien Giang Import-Export Co
- MARCH 15, 2000VietnamDEATH PENALTY
The Ha Tinh Province Court Order Execution Council...
The Ha Tinh Province Court Order Execution Council carried out the death penalty for Tran Van Truong, 38
- MARCH 14, 2000VietnamDEATH PENALTY
The Hanoi Court Order Execution Council executed death...
The Hanoi Court Order Execution Council executed death row prisoner Dinh Van Mao at the Cau Nga Shooting Ground