Tiếng Việt
Table of contents:
1. Administrative sanctions
2. Criminal prosecution
1. Administrative sanctions
According to Point b, Clause 2, Article 42 of Decree 144/2021/ND-CP, violations of regulations on fire, incident, and accident notifications are specifically as follows:
“2. A fine of VND 4,000,000 to VND 6,000,000 shall be imposed for one of the following acts:
b) False fire alarm; reporting fake incidents and accidents”
Based on the above regulations, the act of reporting fake news will be fined from 4,000,000 to 6,000,000 VND. For organizations with the same violation, the fine is 02 times the fine for individuals according to Clause 2, Article 4 of Decree 144/2021/ND-CP.
In addition, according to Point g, Clause 3, Article 102 of Decree 15/2020/ND-CP, it is stipulated as follows:
“Article 102. Violations of regulations on storage, leasing, transmission, provision, access, collection, processing, exchange and use of information
3. A fine of from VND 10,000,000 to VND 20,000,000 shall be imposed for one of the following acts:
g) Providing, exchanging, transmitting or storing, using digital information to threaten, harass, distort, slander, or insult the reputation of an organization, the honor, dignity, and reputation of another person.”
Thus, the act of “false fire alarm” will be fined from VND 4,000,000 to VND 6,000,000. Calling numbers 113, 114, 115 to harass can be fined from 10,000,000 to 20,000,000 VND.
2. Criminal prosecution
The Substantive Penal Code does not have specific provisions on specific crimes for this behavior. However, for the act of continuously calling to the hotlines to harass and obstruct the activities of the public servants, it is possible to be considered and prosecuted for criminal liability for the crime of resisting public servants according to the provisions of Article 330 of the Penal Code 2015, amended and supplemented in 2017, which stipulates:
“Article 330. Resisting a law enforcement officer in performance of his/her official duties
1. Any person who uses violence or threat of violence or other methods to obstruct a law enforcement officer from performing his/her official duties or forces a law enforcement officer to act against the law shall face a penalty of up to 03 years’ community sentence or 06 – 36 months’ imprisonment:
2. This offence committed in any of the following cases shall carry a penalty of 02 – 07 years’ imprisonment:
a) The offence is committed by an organized group;
b) The offence has been committed more than once;
c) The offender persuades or incites another person to commit the offence;
d) The offence results in property damage of ≥ VND 50,000,000;
dd) Dangerous recidivism.”