Presumption of Innocence – Application in Exercising Prosecution Rights, Supervising the Investigation and Adjudication of Criminal Cases under Vietnam Legal

: The presumption of innocence is one of the fundamental principles, widely applied in modern legal science, as the basis for achieving fair and humane justice. This principle was formed very early in the history of the human law, in addition, the Vietnamese law has also absorbed the progressive thought early, recognized as one of the basic principles to ensure human rights and the overall effectiveness of criminal proceedings. The article analyzes the history, nature as well as the practice of applying this principle in the settlement of criminal cases in Vietnam according to the functions and duties of the People's Procuracy.

Code shall be carried out by procedure-conducting agencies and procedure-conducting persons (National Assembly, 2015). Investigation authorities, authorities assigned to perform certain activities of investigation (referred to Investigation authorities) has the duty and responsibility to carry out inspection, verification and investigation activities to identify criminals and offenders. These agencies have the authority and responsibility to conduct all methods of examination, verification and investigation such as scene examination, autopsy, testimony, interrogation, confrontation, identification, experimental investigation, search, etc. to collect evidence, clarify the content of the case. Under the provisions of Articles 165, 166, 236, 237, 266, 267 of the Criminal Procedure Code, The Procuracy exercises prosecution rights, and supervise the law observance in investigation, prosecution and adjudication of criminal cases, ensure that the criminal charges, investigation, prosecution and adjudication of criminal cases comply with the provisions of law on order, procedures, competence and time limit, ensure objectivity, comprehensiveness and completeness. The collection of evidence proving that the crime and the criminal act must not infringe the legitimate rights and interests of the accused, such as these forms are not allowed: torture, violence, harassment, corporal punishment, seduction, deception, etc. Procuracies exercising prosecution rights have the tasks and powers to approve correct procedural decisions of investigating authorities; not to approve, change or cancel the unlawful decisions of the Investigation Authorities. At the end of the investigation, the case file and written conclusions of investigation are transferred to the Procuracy. Within the time limit prescribed by the Criminal Procedure Code, the Procuracy shall study case files, examine and assess evidence to determine the factuality and legality of decisions to press criminal charges, decisions to charge a suspect, etc. as well as case file. In cases where the case files and documents show satisfy requirements for factuality and legality, the Procuracy shall issue a decision to prosecute the accused to court for trial. Offenders must be tried at court openly, fairly, objectively and in accordance with the law on order, procedures, time limit, authority, and other matters. At the court session, the trial panel shall examine and evaluate evidence proving the crime by questioning, arguing and examining new evidences collected at the court session. In case the result of the questioning or argument at the court hearing determines that the defendant has committed a crime according to the indictment and accusation of Procuracy of the Procuracy, the Court shall issue a conviction judgment on the defendant. A guilty judgment pronounced against the offender takes legal effect upon the expiration of the time limit for filing an appeal, appeal by the Procuracy without being appealed or protested (National Assembly, 2015). Only after the conviction takes legal effect, the accused will be considered guilty. (ii). If grounds for conviction, as per the procedures and formalities in the Law, do not suffice, competent procedural authorities and persons shall adjudge the accused person to be not guilty. A crime means an act that is dangerous for society, is committed by a person or a commercial legal entity that infringes on social relations protected by the criminal code. In order to clarify the above-mentioned contents of proof of crime, investigation authorities, procuracies, courts must, within the scope of their respective tasks and powers, thoroughly apply investigation and prosecution measures, legal trial as well as comply with the order, procedures, competence, time limit ... as provided by the Criminal Procedure Code. Accused persons have no responsibility or obligation to prove their innocence, that is, they are not required to present alibi or other evidence to prove to legal protection agencies that they are innocent. Because they are naturally considered to be not guilty, if accuse or convict them, the procedure-conducting agencies must have the responsibility to find evidence to serve the accusation and conviction. According to the basic principles of the Criminal Procedure Code as provided in Article 15: "A accused person is entitled to but is not obliged to prove his innocence". Therefore, when the accused does not perform the proof of his innocence, it should not be considered as stubborn, resisting acts (attitude) to aggravate the punishment for them. However, the accused person has the right to prove his innocence through testimony, defense, witnesses or exhibits in his favor or by other legal means. The process of proving a crime, finding the objective truth of the case cannot avoid difficulties and problems when there are cases that the Investigation authority, the Procuracy or the Court have applied all appropriate investigation measures in accordance with provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code to prove, but is insufficient or unable to collect sufficient evidence to prove the crime or criminal act of the accused person. Therefore, the grounds for accusations and convictions have not been clarified. In that case, the agency or person competent to conduct the proceedings must conclude that the accused is not guilty. That means that the agency or person with authority to conduct proceedings must use evidence in a favorable direction (exonerating) to apply, bring to the accused so that they can enjoy those benefits to exonerate, and prove their innocence.

RESEARCH SUBJECT AND METHODOLOGY Research Subject:
The subject of this research is analyzed the history, nature as well as the practice of applying the presumption of innocence principle in the settlement of criminal cases in Vietnam according to the functions and duties of the People's Procuracy.
of 2015 -National Assembly, 2015). In case of interrogation, the defendant does not commit a crime, the Procurator withdraws a decision to prosecute and requests the Trial Panel to declare the defendant not guilty in accordance with Article 320 of the Criminal Procedure Code. In case the defendant does not commit the offense that the Procuracy has prosecuted but commits another lesser crime or clause, the Procurator shall change the Procuracy's point of view of prosecution and accusation to another lesser crime or clause. Procurators can reduce circumstances that aggravate criminal liability, increase circumstances to mitigate criminal liability or reduce the liability to compensate defendants. In cases where there are sufficient grounds to conclude on another more serious crime, the procurator may not request trial on the heavier crime but request the Trial panel to postpone the court hearing and return the case file to the Procuracy for closely to consider, decide, ensure the objectivity and correctness of the resolution of the case. Third, thoroughly implementing duties and powers to exercise prosecution rights, supervising law observance to ensure the principle of innocence. When exercising prosecution rights, administering charged and investigation, procurators thoroughly implement the duties and powers of procurators and Procuracies to approve, disapprove, or change or cancel the procedural decisions of investigation authorities; request investigation authorities to conduct investigative activities, change and supplement procedural decisions; strictly deal with Investigators who violate the law, etc. At the court hearing, procurators exercise prosecution rights by announcing indictments, questioning, impeachment, arguments, and at the same time supervising the law observance of trial panels and procedure participants to ensure that the trial must be carried out in accordance with the provisions of law. On the basis of compliance with the provisions of the law, human rights and citizenship rights in criminal proceedings will be ensured, especially the legitimate rights and interests of defendants, including the right to "presumption of innocence".

Skills to deal with difficulties and problems in applying the principles of innocence of Prosecutor when exercising prosecution rights, supervising investigation, administering adjudication criminal cases
First, the skill of solving difficulties and problems in applying the principle of innocent speculation in case the investigating authority has not properly perceived the principle of innocence, so the criminal charge and the investigation did not base. According to Article 179 of the Criminal Procedure Code, when a person or juridical person is found on sufficient evidences to commit an act defined by the Criminal Code as a crime, investigation authorities shall decide to file charges against suspects... However, in some cases, it is also difficult for Investigation authority to properly assess the "grounded" nature to determine that a person or juridical person has committed an act defined by the Criminal Code as a crime. According to Article 8 of the Penal Code, crime is an act dangerous to society specified in the Penal Code. For some types of crimes, it is difficult to assess whether the behavior is significantly dangerous to society because the article in the Penal Code does not specify. For example, the Crime of Insults to another person (Article 155 of the Penal Code) or the Crime of Slandering (Article 156 of the Penal Code), to determine the level of "serious insults" is not easy (Supreme People's Procuracy, 2016). Therefore, in some cases, when the act shows signs of a crime, the investigation authority has charged the criminal case, charge the accused and applied preventive measures, coercive measures and conduct investigative activities for the accused. So, in practice, there have been cases of injustice and wrong investigation of the accused. With the responsibility of being the agency exercising prosecution rights, supervising the law observance in prosecution and investigation of criminal cases, procurators must promptly supervise and detect violations of the prosecution and wrong investigation to promptly rectify and remove. In the above cases, in order to promptly detect, correct and eliminate violations in prosecution and injustice investigation, the procurator conducts the supervising right from the time the investigation authority accepts and resolves criminal information, issues a decision to charge a criminal case, to charge suspect, and conducts investigation activities. The prosecutor focuses on researching and evaluating documents, evidence proving a crime, the offender collected by the Investigation Authority to conclude whether or not a crime has occurred, who is the person committing criminal acts. Second, the skill to solve difficulties and problems in applying the principle of innocence in case the investigating authority has not properly perceived the principle of innocence, thus violating the regulations on the investigation of the criminal case, such as: obtainment of testimony by duress, corporal punishment, falsifying case files, suspending, dismissal of cases, handling evidence. For investigators, their main purpose is to clarify the criminal quickly and promptly, the offender as well as other relevant facts. Therefore, in the investigation process, when initially identifying the person committing the crime (the accused), in the mind of some investigators, it is definitely the person who committed the crime, Therefore, they often focus on applying legal investigative measures, even illegal measures such as harassment, corporal punishment, falsifying case files to extract information from the accused. In such cases, the Procurator must closely follow the investigation process of the Investigation Authority, carefully study Third, the skills to solve difficulties and problems in applying the principle of innocence in case the accused, the defendant are denied the crime, do not admit their crime acts. The nature of the offender is to deny sin, seek to conceal, not admit his offenses in order to avoid the punishment of law. The accused, the defendant is denied the crime, does not admit his crime by many different forms and tricks, such as refusing to report, giving false testimony, devious, cheating, destroying evidence of the case ...; give false evidence to prove the alibi; do not admit the charges of the Procuracy in court, etc. When the accused person denies the crime, the Procurator is not allowed to be impatient, angry, and hateful, so that illegal acts such as harassment, corporal punishment, insult honor and dignity of the accused. Procurators need to carefully study the case files, carefully evaluate the collected documents and evidence to coordinate with the Investigator in order to properly investigate to continue collecting evidence to prove criminal offenses. At the trial, in order to fight to clarify the crime or criminal act, the Procurator must interrogating the defendant on the evidences, documents and items related to the charge, exonerate and other details of the cases as provided for in Clause 2, Article 309 of the Criminal Procedure Code. While arguing, the Procurator needs to analyze and evaluate the defendant's behavior, motivation, purpose, the consequences have been caused, the causal relationship between the behavior and the consequences; the relevant evidence gathered during the investigation, prosecution and adjudication process is enough to confirm that the defendant's behavior is a criminal act that specified in the Penal Code that the Procuracy has invoked to prosecute. Fourth, skills to solve difficulties and problems in applying the principle of innocence in case the Court decides to resolve a criminal case without ground or against the law. The Court's decisions and judgments must be correct, objective, fair, and the trial panel's resolutions must be based on evidences and documents that have been examined at the court session, on the basis of considering fully and comprehensively evidences of the cases, opinions of procurators, defendants, defense counsels and other procedure participants. In such cases, in order to ensure the principle of innocence, procurators must promptly int time re-examine the case files, decisions, judgments of the Court, legal documents which the Court applies to report and propose leaders of the Institute to issue petitions, appellate protests, cassation and reopening procedures in order to correct violations, ensure the correct settlement of criminal cases, thereby ensure the principle of innocence in criminal proceedings.

CONCLUSION
One of the new features of the Criminal Procedure Code 2015 is the first time the presumption of innocence has been recognized in the Vietnam Criminal Procedure Code. The recognition of the principle of presumption of innocence has effectively contributed to the protection of human rights in criminal proceedings.