Friday, December 30, 2005
World » Rest of Asia
Kyrgyzstan to abolish death penalty
Agence France-Presse
Bishkek, December 30, 2005
Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has pledged to eliminate the death penalty in a decree extending the Central Asian country's moratorium on carrying out executions that has been in place since 1998.
In the decree issued on late Thursday, Bakiyev gave the Government two months to draft a law replacing the death penalty with long prison terms, including life sentences.
Officials said there are about 200 prisoners on death row in the country of about five million people.
Bakiyev also ordered the Government to develop and implement measures to improve poor prison conditions, which led to bloody riots by prisoners in October and November.
© HT Media Ltd. 2005.