Vietnam moves to end death penalty for drug trafficking, keeps it for 'exceptional' crimes
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Vietnam moves to end death penalty for drug trafficking, keeps it for 'exceptional' crimes")
Representative image. Photograph: (Magnific)
Several Southeast Asian governments have considered serious drug trafficking a crime for several years, warning that it warranted the death penalty. However, some countries have re-examined their laws, leading to amendments.
Under a draft revision to the Penal Code, Vietnam is looking to end executions for drug trafficking, marking Southeast Asia’s notable and toughest anti-drug regimes. The proposal, presented to lawmakers last week, will remove trafficking from the list of capital crimes in Vietnam. Last year, Vietnam had retained this offence during a previous phase of death penalty reforms. If the amended law is enacted, capital punishment would be retained for four crimes: treason, murder, terrorism and illegal narcotics production.
Several Southeast Asian governments have considered serious drug trafficking as a crime for several years, warning that it warranted the death penalty. However, some countries have re-examined their laws, leading to amendments. In 2023, Malaysia ended mandatory death sentences. Meanwhile, Singapore retains the death penalty for the most serious trafficking offences exceeding legal thresholds for quantities of various controlled drugs.
This has sparked broader discussions on whether the death penalty remains relevant in modern society, whether sentencing should allow for judicial discretion, and how nations can tackle drug trafficking through alternative means. According to Hai Thanh Luong, a Vietnamese criminologist based at Griffith University in Australia, Vietnam's proposal does not represent a sudden shift away from capital punishment, but rather forms part of a gradual, long-term process of reform.
Punishment for exceptionally serious crimes
Luong called Hanoi’s approach “retentionist-but-reductionist” and referred to the state’s steady narrowing of offences punishable by death and keeping the punishment for exceptionally serious crimes. He stated that the proposal to remove the death penalty for drug trafficking indicated a gradual political and legal reform, suspecting whether executions could quash drug supply and deeper integration of Vietnam into global legal and diplomatic frameworks. “The strongest driver [is] Vietnam’s gradual legal and political reforms rather than a sudden ideological shift,” Luong said.
The proposal would still allow the death penalty for illegal narcotics production, drawing a distinction between manufacturers, seen as more central to sustaining the drug trade, and traffickers. Luong said the changes would not have a major impact on drug availability.
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He noted that drug markets are quick to adjust, filling the void left by arrested individuals and altering trafficking routes. When questioned about the varying approaches Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore take toward drug traffickers, Luong explained that despite facing comparable challenges in tackling drug flows, the three nations differ in how they perceive deterrence, social order, and the state's role in administering punishment. Although Singapore continues to enforce capital punishment for the most severe trafficking cases, its approach also encompasses a wider anti-drug framework combining enforcement, education, and rehabilitation efforts.
According to Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam, Singapore's policy is designed to prevent drug-related harm while ensuring strict penalties for those trafficking large quantities into the country. The Ministry of Home Affairs referenced a 2024 survey involving 12,000 participants across six regional cities, which found that 84.2 per cent of respondents believed the death penalty served as a deterrent against large-scale drug trafficking into Singapore, while 82.5 per cent viewed it as more effective than life imprisonment in this regard.
Malaysia, on the other hand, scrapped the mandatory death sentence for drug trafficking in 2023, giving courts the discretion to choose between execution and life imprisonment instead. Ngeow Chow Ying, a Malaysian lawyer and deputy convenor of the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, noted that this shift resulted in a significant decline in new death sentences, citing Amnesty International data showing 38 new sentences in 2023, dropping to 24 in 2024, and further down to 15 in 2025.
Ngeow explained that in drug trafficking cases, courts now evaluate both aggravating and mitigating circumstances before deciding between capital punishment and life imprisonment. She added that mitigating factors may include the offender's limited role, such as acting as a courier, the nature of the drugs involved, and whether an early guilty plea was made.
“Appellate courts, for instance, have commuted death sentences to life imprisonment for young or first-time couriers caught with substantial drug quantities, in recognition of their limited role in the operation,” she said. Even so, inconsistencies in interpretation persisted between different judicial levels in some cases, with High Court death sentences imposed on couriers later set aside by superior courts for life imprisonment, Ngeow said. “This suggests that trial-level sentencing remains uneven and continues to depend heavily on appellate correction,” she added.
