National Assembly delegates attending the fourth session of the house Friday called for the execution of a large backlog of court verdicts.

According to the reports, there are around 340,000 court verdicts yet to be executed.

Deputy Tran Thi Phuong Hoa of Nam Dinh Province pointed out that some verdicts are impossible to execute.

She cited the example of a 2006 Quy Nhon verdict in which a market security guard was ordered to pay shopkeepers VND9 billion (US$545,000) to compensate their loss of goods in a fire at the market. The man was only earning a monthly salary of $72.

Minister of Justice Ha Hung Cuong concurred with her saying in some other cases sentenced people cannot afford to pay even VND50,000.

He added that the number of pending cases involving fines of VND500,000 or less is around 100,000.

Deputies also took aim at the courts and police for passing a number of unjust verdicts.

Calling it “unacceptable”, they blamed it on the lack of investigative skills, dereliction of duty, and corruption.

Reported by Xuan Toan