UZBEKISTAN. AMNESTY URGES GOVERNMENT TO ABOLISH DEATH PENALTY

Amnesty International criticized Uzbekistan for putting off its intended abolition of the death penalty until 2008. A month previously, Uzbek President Islam Karimov signed a decree saying that the death penalty will be abolished in Uzbekistan as of 1 January 2008.
"If the Uzbek authorities have already come to the conclusion that the death penalty is inhumane and wrong, then it is hard to understand why the abolition should only start in January 2008 because, looking at the past experience of the death penalty, this means that scores of people are likely to be executed until 2008," Anna Sunder-Plassman, a researcher for the Central Asian division of Amnesty International, said.
Amnesty International urged Uzbekistan to promptly end the secrecy surrounding the application of executions, and also called on authorities to reveal the burial sites of executed prisoners.