Itar-Tass

TAJIKISTAN: Tajik,foreign lawmakers call for death penalty moratorium

The participants in an international conference, titled "The Death Penalty: Pros and Cons" have urged Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov to impose a moratorium on death penalty and study the possibility of banning it althogether.

The conference was organized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Soros Open Society and was attended by legal experts and lawmakers from Russia, Ukraine and Central Asia.

The appeal to President Rakhmonov received by Itar-Tass Dushanbe-based bureau contains a call to continue efforts designed to ensure human rights in Tajikistan and to amend Tajik laws on imposition of death penalty on people older than 65 and reduction in the number of crimes punishable by death.

At present, capital punishment is applied to people charged with terrorism, hostage-taking, violent seizure of power, the storage and distribution of drugs in huge quantities as well as other crimes.