If prisoners have prior criminal records, can they not be granted parole in Vietnam?

If prisoners have prior criminal records, can they not be granted parole in Vietnam?

Clause 9 Article 1 of the Law amending the Penal Code 2017 provides for conditional parole as follows:

1. A person serving an imprisonment sentence (prisoner) for a serious crime, very serious crime or extremely serious crime which has been commuted; a person serving an imprisonment sentence for a less serious crime may be granted parole when all of the following conditions are satisfied:

a) The prisoner does not have prior criminal record;

b) The prisoner shows remarkable improvements;

c) The prisoner has a fixed residence;

d) The prisoner has paid fines, legal costs, and civil compensation in full;

dd) The prisoner has served at least half of determinate imprisonment or at least 15 years of life imprisonment which is commuted to determinate imprisonment.

A prisoner who is a revolutionist, a revolutionist’s relative, wounded soldier, sick soldier, a person aged 70 or older, a person suffering from a serious physical disability or extremely serious physical disability, a woman raising a child under 36 months of age must serve at least one third of determinate imprisonment or at least 12 years of life imprisonment which is commuted to determinate imprisonment;

e) The offence is not committed in any of the circumstances specified in Clause 2 of this Article.

2. Parole shall not be granted to:

a) a person that is convicted of any of the crimes specified in Chapter XIII, Chapter XXVI, Article 299 hereof; any person sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment or longer for deliberately committing any of the crimes specified in Chapter XIV hereof; any person sentenced to 07 years’ imprisonment or longer for any of the crimes specified in Articles 168, 169, 248, 251 and 252 hereof;

b) any person sentenced to death and granted commutation or any person in the circumstance specified in Clause 3 Article 40 hereof.

Thus, not having prior criminal record is one of the mandatory conditions for parole in Vietnam.

Best Regards!