CAT/C/VNM/CO/1
of national security infringements, may in practice be held incommunicado and for much
longer periods. The Committee is seriously concerned that the Criminal Procedure Code
does not provide for appeal of pretrial detention decisions nor allows for their legality to be
reviewed by a court of law (arts. 2, 11 and 16).
25.
The State party should:
(a)
Take all necessary measures to ensure that pretrial detention is closely
monitored so that it does not become a systematic and widespread practice, is not
arbitrary prolonged and in cases allegedly involving national security does not result
in incommunicado detention;
(b)
Amend the Criminal Procedure Code in order to provide the possibility
to appeal pretrial detention decisions and for pretrial detention decisions to be
reviewed by a court of law;
(c)
Monitor the use of pretrial detention and ensure that pretrial detainees
are held separately from convicts, that juveniles are not held with adults and that such
detention is used only as a measure of last resort;
(d)
Promote alternatives to pretrial detention, in accordance with the United
Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Non-custodial Measures (the Tokyo Rules).
Administrative detention
26.
The Committee is concerned that persons considered as a threat to security, social
order or public safety but who are not subject to penal liability may be detained
administratively, without trial, in administrative detention facilities, including compulsory
education facilities, reformatory schools, social protection centres and compulsory
detoxification centres. It is particularly concerned at reports that fundamental legal
safeguards such as access to legal counsel and notification of family members do not apply
to these detainees and that they do not have the same conditions of detention as other
persons deprived of their liberty, and that in some of these institutions prisoners are
obligated to work many hours. The Committee is also concerned that persons in such
facilities can be held without a trial for several years, in conditions which may amount to
incommunicado detention (arts. 2, 11 and 16).
27.
The Committee recommends that the State party:
(a)
Provide information on the number and type of facilities and institutions
where persons are held in administrative detention without trial and on the number
and profile of those detained;
(b)
Ensure that persons in administrative detention enjoy fundamental legal
safeguards, such as access to a lawyer or legal aid and the right to notify their family
about their detention, and that their conditions of detention and treatment are not
inferior to those of other persons deprived of their liberty;
(c)
Introduce a judicial, and not only administrative, process for placing
people in such institutions and ensure that administrative detention is not used as a
surrogate for ordinary criminal detention;
(d)
Ensure that all persons held in administrative detention have the right to
appeal their placement in administrative detention institutions.
Inadmissibility of statements made as a result of torture
28.
While noting the recent changes in legislation, the Committee is gravely concerned
at reports of the widespread practice of torture and ill-treatment of persons deprived of their
liberty with a view to extracting confessions and other information from them. It is also
concerned at the information that, from 2010 to 2015, People’s Courts had not handled any
cases regarding testimony obtained by duress or the bribing or forcing of another person to
give false testimony or to provide false documents. The Committee is also concerned at
reports that some detained persons are forced to sign statements previously prepared by the
relevant State officials and to read confessions in public and that some prosecutors and
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