A new Penal Code entered into force in January 1998...

A new Penal Code entered into force in January 1998 and reduced the number of capital crimes, also replacing the death penalty with a maximum of 30 years. The death penalty is now applicable for: terrorism, treason, premeditated murder, rape, aggravated crimes as well as for offenses for which it is provided under the Military Penal Code. Life imprisonment was abolished for economic reasons. "It is a luxury that only rich countries can permit themselves", said Justice Minister Nelgiya Beishenalieva. On December 5, 1998, President Askar Akayev adopted a decree of a two-year moratorium on the death sentence. When the moratorium came into force there were 55 death row inmates. In October 1999 there were 66, and 64 at the beginning of November, because two had died of illness. Everything concerning the death penalty is shrouded in secrecy in the Kyrgyzstan: there is no official data; the execution procedure is not codified; the executed prisoner's burial place is not revealed; the family has no right whatsoever to recover the body. When a condemned prisoner's request for clemency is turned down, a group of special guards leads him in handcuffs to a bunker where an official from the Public Prosecutor's office, a representative of the prison administration, a doctor and an executioner are waiting for him. The official pronounces the following sentence: "Your request for clemency has been turned down and the penalty will be carried out immediately." The death convict is made to kneel down and the executioner shoots him in the neck. The body of the condemned man is put in a plastic body bag and is taken to a section of the public cemetery where it is buried in a grave marked with only a number. Usually executions are carried out on Wednesday or Thursday evening. Once the death sentences were carried out at Almaty in Kazakhstan in a special prison, now people are shot in their homeland. In Kyrgyzstan there are 35 prisons, only 5 of which can really be considered such. In the Penitentiary Number One in Bishkek, death row is identifed by the name "Corridor No. 6" (a throwback to Stalinism).