Hanoi (VNA) - Lawmakers spent a lot of time debating the age ofresponsibility for various crimes, including deliberately injuring people, rapeand kidnapping when discussing amendments to the 2015 Penal Code at the ongoingthird session of the 14th National Assembly (NA) on May 24.

Many NA deputies disagreed with the Penal Code’s Article 12, which regulatesthat any person from 14 to 16, while still legally a child, is held responsiblefor the above crimes, saying that at these ages, offenders lack knowledge ofsociety and law.

Families, schools and society also impact on children’s behaviour, they said,urging for education measures in such cases.

“The children’s awareness is still limited so they are not fully aware ofsevere crimes such as serious and particularly serious crimes,” said deputy LuuBinh Nhuong from the southern province of Ben Tre, adding that the young peoplenormally only commit less serious crimes.

“To deter and educate, we should handle criminal charges. But to secure thefuture for children and children’s rights, only light penalties or judicial,administrative, educational measures or even exemption from punishment arereasonable," Nhuong said.

“When applying criminal responsibility on children, it is necessary tocarefully consider appropriate punishments to ensure deterrence and to provideopportunities for children to become good people,” he said.

Deputy Nguyen Thai Hoc from the central coastal province of Phu Yen proposed asecond option, stipulating that people between 14 and 16 are only responsiblefor very serious crimes and particularly serious crimes, but have no criminalliability for less serious offenses or serious crimes such as rape,kidnapping or injuring people.

“Such regulations are consistent with the current situation of crime preventionin adolescence,” he said, adding that the crime rate from 14 to 16 isnegligible according to statistics provided by the Supreme People’s Court.

Agreeing, deputy Nguyen Thi Thuy from the northern province of Bac Kan citeddata from the Supreme People’s Procuracy, saying that from 2014-2016, therewere only 122 children nationwide indicted for intentionally inflicting injury,nine were charged with rape, while two were indicted for kidnapping andappropriation of property.

“This shows that there are very few of these offenders, while the 2015 PenalCode extended criminal proceedings to the children. It should be reconsidered,”she said, adding that serious cases in recent years were not in the 14-16group, but mostly in the 16-18 group.

Thuy said, according to statistics, the main reason children committed crimeswas because they did not have a home or a family with up to 10 percent orphans,11 per cent had divorced parents while many of them lived with parents who aredrug addicts or have criminal records.

According to a report of the NA Standing Committee, many other deputies urgednot to amend the Article 2 as the cases of school bullying, rape and kidnappinghad increased. A poll conducted at the second session of the National Assemblyshowed that up to 266 out of 397 NA deputies endorsed this provision ofthe Criminal Code in 2015.

Also on the same day, deputies discussed the suggestion of the majority ofNational Assembly deputies and the Government’s proposal to add regulations forillegal multi-level marketing.

Chairwoman of the National Assembly’s Justice Committee, Le Thi Nga said thatmany multi-level marketing businesses that violate the law had stolen from tensof thousands of people, mainly the poor.

However, the NA Standing Committee said that multi-level marketing is amodern business method. If it obeys the law, it can be effective. However, ifthe business violates the law, there can be grave consequences, she said.

Deputy Bui Van Xuyen from the northern province of Thai Binh said that thenecessity to add violations on multi-level marketing into the Penal Code wasnot clear.

“The Penal Code has had illegal business removed because it was not suitablefor reality, when people have the freedom of doing business in areas notprohibited by law. Now it is not suitable to have a violation on businessregulations of multi-level marketing mode," he said.

According to him, the draft law is not likely to be successful inreality because multi-level marketing companies are all licensed.

Furthermore, the highest penalty of only five years imprisonment is muchlighter than for illegally appropriating property or hi-tech crimes, which canbe punished up to 20 years to life imprisonment, he said.

However, deputy Bach Thi Huong Thuy from the northern province of Hoa Binh saidthat multi-level marketers used sophisticated tricks to steal.

“Reality shows that the situation is complicated, causing serious consequencesand should be added into the law,” she said.

Thuy said it was necessary to punish the heads of multi-level marketingorganisations.-VNA