Reinstating death penalty in Kyrgyzstan ‘unacceptable and legally impossible’: Constitutional Court

By Kanyshai Butun

ISTANBUL (AA) - The Kyrgyzstan Constitutional Court ruled on Wednesday that reinstating the death penalty is “unacceptable and legally impossible.”

Earlier, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov ordered the drafting of a bill that would reintroduce the death penalty in the country for the rape and murder of women and children. He announced that the question will be decided by a nationwide referendum.

The initiative came in the wake of a high-profile murder case involving a 17-year-old girl who was first sexually assaulted and then murdered in late September.

According to the court's decision, the bill cannot be put to a referendum because it is contrary to the constitution.

The court underlined that Kyrgyzstan adopted the protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which aims at the abolition of the death penalty.

“Reintroducing the death penalty in domestic law under these circumstances would inevitably place the Kyrgyz Republic in violation of its treaty obligations,” the court said in a statement.

The death penalty was suspended in Kyrgyzstan in 1998 following a moratorium, and was formally abolished in 2007 when it was replaced by life imprisonment.