Offenders who have completely
served their penalties shall be given conditions to do business, live honestly
and integrate with the community, and when they meet all the conditions
prescribed by law, their conviction may be expunged and their criminal records
will be cleaned. A person whose criminal record is
removed is considered as having not been convicted. There are three cases of
conviction expungement, including: Automatic conviction expungement; Conviction
expungement under a Court’s decision; Special cases of conviction expungement.
Automatic conviction
expungement applies to people convicted not for crimes of infringing upon
national security and crimes of undermining peace, against humanity and war
crimes when they have completed their main penalty, the probationary period of
the suspended sentence, the person has served the additional penalty, other
decisions of the judgment or has expired and does not commit any new crime
during the periods specified below: (i) 01 year in case of a warning, fine,
community sentence or suspended imprisonment; (ii) 02 years in case of
imprisonment of up to 05 years; (iii) 03 years in case of imprisonment from
over 05 years to 15 years; (iv) 05 years in case of imprisonment of over 15
years or commuted life imprisonment. A convict serving an additional punishment
that is mandatory supervision, prohibition from residence, prohibition from
holding certain positions, prohibition from doing certain jobs, deprivation of
certain citizenship rights for a period longer than those specified
in points (i), (ii), (iii) above, automatic conviction expungement
shall be granted when he/she finishes serving the additional punishment.
Conviction expungement under a
Court’s decision is applicable to persons convicted of crimes of infringing
upon national security and crimes of undermining peace, against humanity and
war crimes. The Court shall decide the conviction expungement of convict based
on the nature of the crimes committed, the law-observing attitude, the
convicted person’s labor attitude and the following conditions:
The Court shall grant
conviction expungement if the convict, after serving the primary sentence or
probation period as well as additional sentences and other decisions of the
judgment, does not commit any new crime over the following periods: (i) 01 year
in case of warning, community sentence, or suspended imprisonment; (ii) 03
years in case of imprisonment of up to 05 years; (iii) 05 years in case of
imprisonment of between more than 5 years and 15 years; (iv) 07 years in case
of imprisonment of more than 15 years, life imprisonment or death sentence that
is commuted.
If the convict is serving an
additional sentence which is mandatory supervision, prohibition from residence,
or deprivation of certain citizenship rights for a longer period than that
specified in points (i), (ii) above, conviction expungement shall be considered
when he/she finishes serving the additional sentence.
If an application for
conviction expungement is rejected for the first time, it may only be
resubmitted after 01 year from the day on which it is rejected; if the
application for conviction expungement is rejected for the second time, it may
only be resubmitted after 02 years from the day on which it is rejected.
Where a convict shows
remarkable improvements and has made reparation in an effort to atone for the
crime and conviction expungement is requested by his/her employer or local
authority, the court shall decide to grant conviction expungement if has served
at least one third of the above period.
In order to be automatically
expunge conviction or expunged conviction according to the decision of the
Court, the convict must fully comply with the decisions in the judgment
including the payment of court costs and not commit any new crime within the
prescribed time limit. For special cases of conviction expungement, convict must
have at least one-third of the time limit for conviction expungement according
to regulations and the Court shall decide to expunge conviction at the request
of agencies or organizations where the person works or the local government
where the person resides.
The period after which a
conviction may be expunged depends on the primary sentence. If the convict who
has not had the conviction expunged commits a new crime which leads to a
conviction under an effective judgment, the period after which the conviction
may be expunged shall start over from the day on which the primary sentence has
been served or the end of the probation period of the new judgment or from the
deadline for execution of the new judgment. If the convict has committed more
than one crime and one of which is automatically eligible for expungement, one
of which is eligible for expungement under a court’s decision, the Court shall
decide expungement pursuant to the prescribed time limit for conviction
expungement under the Court’s decision.
A convicted corporate legal
entity shall automatically have its conviction expunged if it does not commit
any new criminal offence for 02 years from the day on which the primary
punishments, additional punishments, other decisions of the judgment are served
or from the expiration of the time limit for execution of the judgment.
Criminal record card can be
obtained at authority to reveal the current criminal conviction situation or
changes of situation of such conviction.
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