Kyrgyz President Extends Moratorium On Death Penalty

Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev has decreed an extension of the existing moratorium on death penalty in the country until the end of 2002. A senior source in the presidential administration told RIA Novosti Monday that the decree directs all the government departments concerned to draw up proposals by March 1 on improving the imprisonment conditions for death row inmates. Also, the Kyrgyz Prosecutor General's Office is to closer scrutinize their imprisonment conditions and the state of law and order in the penal system. The moratorium on death penalty execution has been extended for a second time since December 1998, when President Akayev for the first time decreed it for two years. He extended it for another year afterwards.