Gateway 2 Russia

Ex-Soviet Kazakhstan slaps moratorium on executions

Kazakhstan, lauded by the West for its economic reforms but berated for slow democratic changes, has moved closer to European standards by imposing a moratorium on executions, an official said on Thursday.

"A decree has been signed to impose a moratorium on the death penalty in the Republic of Kazakhstan," Igor Rogov, deputy chief of presidential staff, told a news briefing, adding that President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed the decree on Wednesday.

Prior to the decree, Western human rights groups had lobbied the nation of 15 million to end the death penalty, which could previously be imposed on particularly extreme cases of murder.

Rights groups say Kazakhstan, a largely Muslim Central Asian nation of 15 million, executed people until recently. Rogov declined to give statistics on the number of executions. Kazakhstan, which is hoping for closer diplomatic and business ties with the West and increased international funding, is praised by Western governments for its liberal economy and success in attracting massive foreign investment.

But the sprawling nation has ignored repeated calls to deepen democratic reform. Other changes sought by the West include more press freedom, less rigid registration rules for opposition parties and elections of regional heads currently handpicked by the strongman president.

Rogov said the moratorium on executions was "open-ended", but stressed most Kazakh citizens still backed capital punishment and so it might be reinstated "if need be". "This may happen if the crime rate becomes a threat to national security, if violent crime surges. But we believe that such a possibility is purely theoretical," he said.

Neighbouring Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan have long imposed a moratorium on death penalty, while other fellow Central Asian states Uzbekistan and Tajikistan still practise Soviet-style executions by firing squad.