New Kyrgyz criminal code relaxes death penalty

A new criminal code came into effect in Kyrgyzstan on 1st January which replaces the death penalty with long-term imprisonment.

The Kyrgyz newspaper `Slovo Kyrgyzstana' said the code, which was passed by the Kyrgyz parliament last September, is "fully in line with international standards of criminal law" and has 101 articles more than its predecessor, which had been in force since 1960.

The new code reclassifies crimes as minor, less grave, grave and especially grave and increases prison terms up to 20 years for the latter two categories.

It also replaces capital punishment by 30 years' imprisonment "in accordance with an amnesty procedure".

New kinds of crimes such as kidnapping, recruiting people with the aim of exploitation, and the forcible removal of human bodies for transplant purposes have been included in the code, which also covers such new crimes as "terrorism", "taking hostages", "organized criminal fellowship", "corruption", "genocide"and "ecological damage", the paper said.

"Article 38 does not identify as a crime inflicting certain damage on criminals during their detention", the paper reported, adding that "this will provide an opportunity for law-enforcement agencies to be more resolute in their fight against the crime." "The new criminal code allows us to wage an effective fight against crime, broadens the definition of criminal offences, it differentiates the kinds of penalties, gives clear-cut definitions of separate criminal acts, humanizes to a certain extend the legislation and brings it in line with international standards of criminal law," the paper concluded.

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