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
- 786
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 786 news items on Vietnam, from 1999 to today.
In Vietnam the number of executions is treated as a state secret. Figures emerge intermittently, often from internal documents. Capital punishment concerns above all drug offences and serious economic crimes, and since 2011 the method has been lethal injection, which replaced shooting.
The archive gathers the known sentences, individual cases and the rare official information.
Latest news
- JANUARY 25, 1999VietnamDEATH PENALTY
On January 25, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai said he...
On January 25, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai said he wanted fewer death penalties handed down, and dislikes the use of firing squads
- JANUARY 1, 1999VietnamDEATH PENALTY
Since 1997, possession or smuggling at least 100g or...
Since 1997, possession or smuggling at least 100g or more of heroin, or 5kg or more of opium, has been punishable by death
- JANUARY 1, 1999VietnamDEATH PENALTY
Vietnam imposes the death penalty for murder, drug...
Vietnam imposes the death penalty for murder, drug trafficking and large-scale corruption
- JANUARY 1, 1999VietnamDEATH PENALTY
About 18,000 people were arrested for their involvement...
About 18,000 people were arrested for their involvement in drug smuggling and drug abuse in the first 9 months of 1999, a local report stated in late October, while Vice Minister of Public Security Le The Tiem was quoted as saying that local police have m
- JANUARY 1, 1999VietnamDEATH PENALTY
In the first week of January, two men were shot in public
In the first week of January, two men were shot in public
- JANUARY 1, 1999VietnamDEATH PENALTY
At least 76 prisoners were executed in 1999 for drug...
At least 76 prisoners were executed in 1999 for drug trafficking in the Southeast Asian nation