The death penalty in Kazakhstan is a contentious issue

The death penalty in Kazakhstan causes a storm of emotions among the locals. Some advocate this type of punishment, arguing that there are crimes for which it is possible and necessary to take lives. Others hold the opposite position, preferring the humanistic principles of criminal law.

Development of new legislation

At the moment, jurists of the Republic of Kazakhstan are working on a draft of a new criminal law. The developers propose to follow international principles and exclude this type of punishment. In this regard, many citizens, both local and foreign, are asked the question: "Is there a death penalty in Kazakhstan?"

As an addendum, lawyers point out that the proposed changes fully correspond to the development of modern society. The last death penalty in Kazakhstan sounded in the sentence about 15 years ago. The current code says that punishment is an exceptional measure that can be applied for criminal acts related to terrorism that caused the death of people. Also art. 48 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan provides for the use of the death penalty in time of war in the commission of particularly serious crimes.

Analysis of the legislation allows us to say that this type of punishment can be appointed for one of the 16 crimes, for 11 of which the consequences in the form of death of citizens are mandatory. At the same time, for mercenarism, the killing of the incumbent or the first president, diversion or terrorism, the death penalty is imposed regardless of the consequences that have occurred.

Moratorium without statute of limitations

The death penalty in Kazakhstan is currently not being implemented due to the fact that in 2003 the president imposed a moratorium. The peculiarity of this decision is the absence of a period of validity of the prohibition on the execution of punishment. A vivid example of a similar solution is the Russian President's moratorium on the death penalty, which operated until 2010. With the onset of this date, the head of state issued an order forbidding judges to elect this measure.

Now, the death penalty in Kazakhstan is necessarily replaced by imprisonment. A judge may determine the term of serving a sentence in a strict regime colony, or he may leave a criminal in prison for life.

Surprisingly, as a form of punishment, the death penalty in Kazakhstan still officially operates. For and against this state of things expressed by many, but a unanimous opinion has not yet been formed in society.

One of the deputies of the parliament even expressed the opinion that the question of excluding this type of punishment is unlawful. However, he did not explain to journalists what his opinion was based on, and also refused to give any arguments in defense of his position.

The position "for"

According to civil society, the death penalty in Kazakhstan is not subject to cancellation, since it has a warning meaning. Agree, it is rather difficult to determine those crimes for which punishment is imposed during military operations. Thus, during peacetime, some actions do not matter to the state, while the same acts committed upon the introduction of a state of emergency can determine the outcome of the battle.

In the period of military operations, the psychology of people is changing, they begin to think and act quite differently, as a result, new types of crimes are emerging. So, there must be an opportunity to apply an adequate punishment, corresponding to the seriousness of the consequences of an act.

Power is looking for arguments

The deputy prosecutor general of the republic said that he had not heard the arguments that would persuade him to advocate the abolition of this type of punishment. Johann Merkel believes that the death penalty in Kazakhstan should be preserved.

The official points out that he sees no reason to change his own opinion. He believes that the phrase: "If you have the death penalty, then you are a backward state" - is absurd. In this case, the United States and Russia should occupy the lowest positions. Kazakhstan is an independent state, therefore, the prosecutor is convinced, no one can force him to change the national legislation, including criminal ones.

International standards

In today's world, there are double standards. On the one hand, the norms speak about the need to get rid of the legislation from this preventive measure, and on the other - the society opposes the abolition of the death penalty. A representative of the US FBI said at the talks that no one had excluded this type of punishment from the country's legislation. However, in order to share the positions of the civilized community, the president had to decide on reforming the criminal legislation, which led to his mitigation. This is a vivid example of the manipulation of countries, including the United States. At the same time, the authorities of the Republic of Kazakhstan are convinced of their independence in making decisions and do not want to go on about the world community.