Kyrgyzstan: The President’s party wants to keep death penalty
On November 11 at the session of Kyrgyz parliament Ak-Jol President’s party rejected idea of ratification of international pact on cancellation of death penalty, adopted by UN General Assembly resolution in 1989.
According to the press-service of Kyrgyz parliament, Nurlan Tursunkulov, the reporter, informed that Kyrgyzstan joined International pack on civil and political rights, dated October 7 of 1994. Now the subject of discussion is the second protocol to this pact, saying about the cancellation of capital punishment.
The Justice Minister noted that Kyrgyz law, dated June 25, 2007 (assuming the humanization of criminal code) substituted death penalty with life imprisonment. By today, the above mentioned international protocol has been signed by 71 states.
In accordance with optional protocol no party, the subject to the jurisdiction of current Protocol member-state, shall introduce capital punishment; besides, each member-state puts all efforts within national legislation to cancel death penalty.
During the discussion deputies Raisa Sidorenko, Askar Salymbekov, Ernest Akramov were against the ratification of this protocol, noting that the rights of victims must be observed. They pointed out that crime was growing in the republic while the humanization of legislation favors criminals.
So far this is unclear whether this issue will be considered at the parliamentary session.
According to current "Bakiev’s" Constitution of 2007, the death penalty is excluded from the punishment list for criminal and other violations. The issue was raised again by Adakhan Madumarov, the Security Council Secretary, and supported by Head of National Security Murat Sutalinov who suggested making death penalty a public event.
Such statements produced indignation among human rights activists and civil society that hinted that cancellation of death penalty was one of the achievements of Bakiev’s administration. The response followed immediately: the Security Council Secretary declared the initiative was his personal opinion and did not reflect the position of Kyrgyz leader.
