Tajikistan cannot abolish the death penalty at present,...

Tajikistan cannot abolish the death penalty at present, an official from the Justice Ministry, Sh. A. Nodirova, head of the ministry's Directorate for International Legal Relations and the Protection of the Economic Interests of the Republic of Tajikistan, has said in an article published in the Tajik newspaper Asia-Plus. "Because of the current political and economic situation in the country, we can[not] renounce the death penalty as the highest form of punishment at the present stage. But, at the same time, we hope that we shall manage to commute the death penalty to life imprisonment with the laying down of minimum standard conditions for treating prisoners in the near future," Nodirova said. The official said that the observance of constitutional human rights is the basis for the stability of the state and society. "The encouragement and protection of personal rights is the most important condition for the development of democracy in Tajikistan and the ensuring of political and social stability in the country," the article said.