Crime & Justice

Kazakhstan abolishes death penalty

Nur-Sultan, Dec 29 (EFE).- Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Wednesday signed a law abolishing capital punishment in the Central Asian country, his office announced.

A death sentence moratorium in the former Soviet republic had been in effect since 2003.

During a review of the moratorium in Parliament, the possibility of keeping the death penalty for serious crimes of a military nature committed in times of war was being considered, but the Kazakh leader insisted on the need to eliminate the death penalty without any conditions.

Death sentences will be commuted to life sentences without parole, as required by Kazakh law, Tokayev’s office said.

In 2020, Nur-Sultan reported that it had adhered to the international pact on the abolition of capital punishment.

Tokayev made that pledge in his message to the UN General Assembly on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the United Nations.

According to the Kazakh president, Kazakhstan, the largest country in Central Asia, was committed to the fundamental right to life and human dignity. EFE

kk-aj/io/jrh

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