On December 10, Kyrgyzstan’s Constitutional Court weighed in on the death penalty reinstatement debate that intensified following the brutal abduction, rape, and murder of yet another girl earlier this year. The court concluded that “reinstating the death penalty through a constitutional amendment is unconstitutional, impermissible, and legally impossible.”

President Sadyr Japarov, who proposed amending the country’s constitution to reinstate the death penalty for serious sexual crimes against children and murder involving rape, requested the court’s opinion on his proposed amendments. 

Kyrgyzstan abolished capital punishment in 2007, formalizing the moratorium that had stopped executions........

© The Diplomat