The death penalty rate in Kazakhstan was declining,...

The death penalty rate in Kazakhstan was declining, Justice Minister Onalsyn Zhumabekov told a session of the Legal Policy Council in Astana. Kazakhstan was holding 28 convicts sentenced to execution as of June 1, 2003, while the number was 96 in 1999, 71 in 2000, 65 in 2001 and 51 in 2002, the minister said.
The president pardoned eight convicts sentenced to death in 1999; whilst four were pardoned in 2000 and 2001, and two in 2002. In 2003 no one sentenced to death was pardoned. Death sentences were changed to prison terms for 23 convicts in 1999, 18 in 2000, 14 in 2001, 5 in 2002, and 3 in 2003.
Death sentence is a punishment for first-degree murder, the minister said. Only 5% of deliberate murders were punished with death, he added. About 69% of respondents in a mass poll opposed the moratorium on the death penalty, while 31% supported it, Zhumabekov said. The number of moratorium opponents was declining, he noted.