Tajikistan is to suspend the death penalty, its president...

Tajikistan is to suspend the death penalty, its president said, making Uzbekistan the only country among the five ex-Soviet Central Asian states to carry out capital punishment. President Imomali Rakhmonov made the surprise announcement during a speech to parliament, but did not say when the moratorium would come into effect or how long it would be enforced. Tajik courts implemented the death penalty in cases involving murder, terrorism, genocide, and rape. Firing squad executions were carried out without informing relatives.
According to human rights group Amnesty International, at least 28 people were executed in 2002. There were no official statistics as Tajikistan treated the number of executions as a state secret.
The moratorium followed a simplification of the criminal code in 2003 which cut the number of offences for which a criminals could be sentenced to death.
The impoverished largely Muslim nation bordering Afghanistan fought a civil war from 1992-97. Amnesty said government opponents were among those sentenced to death in court cases that failed to meet international standards.
Kazakhstan introduced a moratorium on capital punishment in 2003, Kyrgyzstan has had one since 1998 and Turkmenistan abolished executions in 1999.
Uzbekistan, a close United States ally in the "war on terror", has made no moves towards a moratorium. Amnesty said it had executed at least 11 people in 2002 and five men died while in custody or shortly after release.