The decade-old Law on the Organization of People's...

The decade-old Law on the Organization of People's Courts is in urgent need of an overhaul to bring it up to date with the country's fast-changing circumstances, according to the nation's top judge.
Chief Judge of the People's Supreme Court Trinh Hong Duong presented a draft of the revised law to the National Assembly - the third set of revisions to the law in 10 years.Duong was quoted by Vietnam News as saying that the people's courts at various levels have handled 857,654 cases during the 1997-2001 period.
Of these 2,475 cases dealt with corruption, bribery and abuse of power involving 5,125 people. Some 4,950 law breakers were brought to trial, of whom 24 were sentenced to death, 56 imprisoned for life and 203 jailed for 15-20 years.
The past five years also saw 1,853 smuggling trials involving 3,588 people. Death sentences were handed down to three ring-leaders of smuggling rings, life imprisonment to 11 smugglers, and other punishments to another 2,366.Meanwhile, 34,743 drug-related cases concerning 49,614 people were discovered and prosecuted.
Heavy punishments were meted out to heroin and opium traffickers, with 310 death sentences, 285 life imprisonment terms and 7,489 people jailed for 10-20 years.