Kazakhstan Introduces Death Penalty Moratorium, Seeks to Replace It with Life in Prison

Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a decree on December 18 introducing a moratorium on the death penalty until the issue of its complete abolishment is settled. The decree gave the Government 10 days to draft a bill on the moratorium and on the introduction of new regulation on life sentencing in January 2004.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) December 29, 2003 --Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a decree on December 18 introducing a moratorium on the death penalty until the issue of its complete abolishment is settled. The decree gave the Government 10 days to draft a bill on the moratorium and on the introduction of new regulation on life sentencing in January 2004.

Officials of the presidential administration called this move historic and again voiced their to end the death penalty.

At a media briefing in Astana on December 18, Igor Rogov, Deputy Chief of Staff of the President and a long-time lawyer, said: "Although the death penalty still remains on the books, the moratorium will have no time limits and will last as long as it is needed to abolish the death penalty."

Kazakhstan has been gradually modernizing punishments for many types of crimes since it inherited a draconian Soviet criminal system at independence in 1991. The death penalty was abolished for theft, robbery, rape and other offenses, while it was retained as an option for penalizing those who killed people.

The moratorium legally came into force on December 19, 2003. According to Khabar news agency (www.khabar.kz), currently there are only 6 people on death row. The decree instructed the Prosecutor General to check their sentences for legality. In the future, special correction facilities will be built for those serving life imprisonment, but for the moment separate sections will be allocated for them in regular prisons.
###