The human rights commissioner of Kyrgyzstan, Tursunbai...

The human rights commissioner of Kyrgyzstan, Tursunbai Bakir-uulu, proposed introducing a moratorium on the death penalty.
He told a news conference that he would send a letter to this effect to the Kyrgyz president, to the prime minister and to the chairman of the Supreme Court so that they could come up with a corresponding legislative initiative.
There were 160 persons on death row in Kyrgyzstan, which adopted a moratorium on executions in 1998.
The death penalty is to be cancelled altogether in 2010. Until Kyrgyzstan built a special prison for people sentenced to death, courts should stop passing death sentences, the ombudsman said.
"People sentenced to death are held in inhuman conditions in overcrowded cells. High death and suicide rates have been registered among them," he said.
"We must guarantee these people prison conditions that meet international standards," he said.