The National Assembly has passed the Law No. 94/2015/QH13 dated November 25, 2015, persons held in custody may meet their relatives once during the period of custody and once during each extended period of custody. Persons held in temporary detention may meet their relatives once a month; any increase in the number of meetings with relatives or any meetings with persons other than relatives shall be approved by case-settling agencies.
The time for each meeting must not exceed one hour. Under-18 persons held in custody or temporary detention may meet their relatives and defense counsels and have consular access with the number of visits doubling that of persons aged full 18 years or older.
During the period of custody, a person held in custody may receive gifts from his/her relatives no more than once; if his/her period of custody is extended, for each extension, he/she may additionally receive gifts for one more time. A person held in temporary detention may receive gifts from his/her relatives at most three times a month.
The quantity of food and drink received at a time must not exceed three times the ordinary daily food ration. Heads of detention facilities shall organize the receipt and examination of gifts, take out banned items, then hand over gifts to persons held in custody or temporary detention; inspect, prevent and stop acts of appropriating gifts of persons held in custody or temporary detention. The Minister of Public Security and the Ministry of National Defense shall specify types of gifts that relatives may send to persons held in custody or temporary detention.
A person held in custody or temporary detention is entitled to medical examination and treatment and epidemic prevention and control. In case of being ill or injured, he/she shall be examined and treated at the infirmary of the detention facility. If his/her serious illness or injury exceeds the detention facility’s capacity, he/she shall be referred to a district- or provincial-level health establishment, military hospital or central hospital for examination and treatment.
Also in accordance with this Law, persons held in custody or temporary detention may be incarcerated in separate rooms for the persons who are homosexual persons, transgender persons; persons infected with group-A contagious diseases; persons sentenced to death; persons showing signs of suffering a mental disease or another disease that deprives them of perception or act control capacity but having not yet been examined, awaiting examination results or pending transfer to a compulsory medical establishment or pregnant women and women with under 36-month children living together.
This Law takes effect on July 01, 2016.
