The administration of the President of Kyrgyzstan has submitted a draft law to public discussion proposing amendments to the Constitution that would reintroduce the death penalty, Kabar.kg reported.
The main purpose of the draft is to strengthen the protection of women and children from serious crimes, including violence and murder. According to the authors of the initiative, the growing number of such crimes in the country requires setting a “clear boundary of punishment” for offenders.
“It is time for anyone who commits cruel violence against women and children to be completely excluded from society and subjected to the harshest and fairest punishment — the death penalty,” the document states.
Currently, the death penalty in Kyrgyzstan is prohibited under Article 25, Part 1 of the Constitution. The proposed amendment also repeals the 2010 law that made Kyrgyzstan a party to the UN Second Optional Protocol abolishing the death penalty.
The explanatory note emphasizes that the death penalty can only be applied for the most serious crimes, under laws in force at the time of the crime, and only after a final judgment by a competent court. The process must comply with international law and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.
President Sadyr Japarov first proposed the initiative in early October. He called for the introduction of the death penalty for individuals convicted of raping or murdering women and children. The proposal followed the brutal rape and murder of a girl born in 2008 near Issyk-Kul.
The suspect has already been arrested. On October 4, Japarov announced that “the bill on the death penalty may be put to a nationwide vote.”
The death penalty in Kyrgyzstan was suspended in 1998 following a moratorium, and in 2007 it was fully replaced with life imprisonment. In 2010, the country ratified an international protocol obligating it never to reinstate the death penalty.
If the new initiative is approved, the reintroduction of the death penalty will require constitutional amendments and a national referendum.
Analysts believe the proposal will spark intense debate in Kyrgyz society — some see it as justice, while others argue it contradicts humanitarian principles.
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