E/CN.4/1995/31/Add.4 page 11 law, the right of all citizens to security of person, to the protection of their life, health, property, honour and dignity and to the presumption of innocence, the rights of the defence and the obligation for investigation services, courts and prosecutors’ offices to guarantee the defence of indicted and accused persons, the impartiality which must be displayed by all persons conducting or taking part in criminal proceedings, the independence of judges and co-magistrates who are answerable only to the law and the public nature of court proceedings. 35. Article 2 of the Penal Code provides that only persons who have committed an offence or a crime defined by a criminal law are subject to criminal prosecution. Like all the penal codes in the world, the Penal Code sets out the different crimes and offences and the penalties by which they are punishable. It refers, for example, to violations of privacy and physical integrity, economic offences, etc. However, it must be noted that the Penal Code attaches great importance to offences against the State and its organization and security, as well as against public order and socialist property. These offences are dealt with in chapter I of the Code, entitled "National Security" (arts. 72 to 100). For example, article 72 refers to high treason and article 73 deals with "activities designed to overthrow the power of the people". This article has often been criticized because it does not make a distinction, from the viewpoint of modus operandi, between persons who use violence to achieve their objectives and those who are involved only in political activities which are primarily peaceful and which are, in the final analysis, an expression of freedom of opinion, expression, association and assembly. From the point of view of penalties, article 73 does distinguish between principals and accessories, who are liable to 30 years’ imprisonment, life imprisonment or the death penalty, and accomplices, who are liable to 30 years’ or life imprisonment. 36. Another provision about which there may be some question is that, in many of these cases of offences against national security, reference is made to a kind of undefined aggravating circumstance, which applies where the offence was committed in "particularly serious circumstances", without any further details. Conversely, the penalty may be reduced if the offence was committed in "less serious circumstances", also without any further explanation. The fact is, however, that the lack of definition of these aggravating or extenuating circumstances may result in arbitrariness. 37. The interrogation of a woman prisoner at Ham Tam camp may have suggested that imprisonment for debt exists in Viet Nam. This prisoner told the mission that she was serving a 16-year prison term for having borrowed a large amount of money from a State bank that she could not pay back, but, on checking, it was found that this type of imprisonment is not provided for in the Penal Code. An offence has been committed in such a case only when the money has been obtained from the State through the use of fraud or when the borrower has not used the money in accordance with the loan contract. B. Enforcement of the applicable rules 38. Here, it will be a question of determining whether the formal provisions described above concerning the legal status of persons deprived of their liberty are actually implemented.