Starting next month, Vietnam will eliminate the death penalty for eight crimes, including embezzlement and attempts to overthrow the government, according to a statement from the National Assembly on Wednesday (June 25). This move will spare individuals such as real estate tycoon Truong My Lan, who was previously sentenced to death in a US$12-billion (S$15.3-billion) fraud case.

The National Assembly unanimously approved amendments to the Criminal Code that abolish capital punishment for certain offenses. According to the official Vietnam News Agency, the death penalty will also be removed for crimes such as damaging state property, producing counterfeit medicine, threatening peace, initiating aggressive wars, espionage, and drug possession.

Under the revised law, the harshest punishment for these crimes will now be life imprisonment. Anyone who had already received a death sentence for these offenses but has not yet been executed will have their sentence reduced to life in prison starting July 1. This includes Truong My Lan, chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, whose death sentence for embezzlement will now be converted. Lawyer Ngo Anh Tuan, who is not involved in Lan’s case, confirmed to Reuters that her sentence would be automatically commuted.

However, capital punishment will still apply to 10 crimes, including murder, treason, terrorism, child sexual abuse, and drug trafficking. Vietnam keeps execution statistics classified, and the number of death row inmates is unknown. Since 2011, the country has used lethal injection as its sole method of execution, having phased out firing squads.