E/CN.4/1995/31/Add.4 page 9 provincial courts and 90 days for the Supreme Court ruling on appeal. Proceedings before the Appeal Court are conducted according to the same procedure as in first instance, with the prosecutor’s office and the parties concerned assisted by their counsel, as appropriate. Proprio motu or at the request of the Appeal Court, the prosecutor’s office may produce new evidence which must be examined and compared with the old evidence. The Appeal Court may either reject the appeal or "protest" and uphold the decision appealed, change it or even reject it by ordering that the case should be further investigated, tried again in first instance or referred back to the court handling it earlier, specifying that the court’s composition must be different. (b) Review 28. There is a review procedure for judgements and decisions having force of res judicata, but handed down in violation of the law. This is the case when the examination of the facts and the interrogation were conducted in a biased or inadequate manner, when there is a contradiction between the operative part of the decision and the facts as they result objectively from the proceedings, when serious violations of criminal procedure came to light during the investigation or the proceedings or when serious errors were committed in the enforcement of the Penal Code. Power to request a review of decisions handed down by courts at any level is vested in the President of the Supreme Court and the Public Prosecutor in that Court. It is also vested in the Vice-President of the Supreme Court and the Deputy Public Prosecutor in respect of decisions handed down by lower courts. The president of a provincial court and the public prosecutor of that court have the same powers in respect of decisions handed down by district courts. At the provincial court level, a judicial committee considers the application for review, while, at the Supreme Court level, the Criminal Chamber does so. The exercise of its review power enables the court concerned to dismiss the application for review and thus uphold the decision having force of res judicata; to overturn the decision and close the case; to overturn the decision and order a new investigation or a new trial; or to amend the decision. (c) Courts of special jurisdiction 29. Military courts are the only courts of special jurisdiction in Viet Nam, if they may be regarded as such. At the district level, they are regional military courts. At the provincial level, they are sectoral courts and, at the top, there is the High Military Court. These courts have jurisdiction for any offences assigned to them by law and, basically, the Code does not seem to make any distinction between offences committed by the military in the exercise of its functions and those not committed in the exercise of those functions. 30. Persons prosecuted for breaches of State security are tried by the same courts as ordinary offenders, except that the provincial courts have jurisdiction in first instance.