Kazakh Justice Minister Onalsyn Zhumabekov said the...

Kazakh Justice Minister Onalsyn Zhumabekov said the government planned to replace the death penalty with life imprisonment as of January 1, 2004. A law to this effect had already been drafted, ITAR-TASS reported. Within the framework of the reform to "make the penitentiary system more humane" the question was being considered of whether to impose a moratorium on the death penalty, which would eventually be replaced with life imprisonment, the report added.