President Askar Akayev established a two-year moratorium on executions

President Askar Akayev established a two-year moratorium on executions on December 5, 1998, that has subsequently been renewed annually. The last presidential decree keeping it in place was issued in January 2004. 
Fifty-five people were known to be on death row when the moratorium came into force. However very little information is available the death penalty system in Kyrgyzstan as everything concerning it is shrouded in secrecy. There are 35 prisons, only 5 of which can really be considered such. In the Penitentiary Number One in Bishkek, death row is identified by the name "Corridor No. 6" (a throwback to Stalinism).
Legal steps have been taken to restrict the use of the death penalty and move towards abolition.
A new Penal Code, which entered into force in January 1998, drastically reduced the number of capital crimes. Only terrorism, treason, premeditated murder, rape, aggravated crimes and certain offences under the Military Penal Code now carried the death penalty. Before 1998, over 30 articles of the former Soviet state’s criminal code prescribed the death penalty.
An amendment to the new Penal Code signed by Akayev on March 23, 2004, further cut capital crimes down to three: aggravated murder, rape of underage children and genocide.
The move was part of Kyrgyzstan’s human rights programme adopted in January 2002, which set 2010 as the target date for the abolition of the death penalty. Women and children are exempt from capital punishment.
On January 15, 2004, Kyrgyz Justice Minister Kurmanbek Osmonov said that the death penalty in Kyrgyzstan could be abolished as early as 2006. On January 15, 2005 Kyrgyzstan has extended its moratorium on the execution of death sentences until December 31, 2005.