government: Presidential (dominant party)

state of civil and political rights: Not free

constitution: 8 December 1992

legal system: based on Soviet system, but evolving; still lacks independent judicial system

legislative system: Unicameral Supreme Assembly (Oliy Majlis)

judicial system: Supreme Court whose judges are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Supreme Assembly

religion: Sunni majority

death row:

year of last executions: 0-0-0

death sentences: 0

executions: 0

situation:
With the introduction of law No. 482-II on April 25, 2003, the number of crimes punishable by the death penalty were reduced from four to two. The death penalty now applies only for crimes of terrorism and first-degree murder.
The first real attempt had been made in 1994 when a law was brought into effect reducing the number of capital crimes from 30 to 13.
On August 29, 1998, the Oliy Majlis (Parliament) further reduced these to 8, removing the death penalty from the Penal Code as a punishment for 5 crimes: forced sex satisfaction in perverted form; breaking of laws and customs of war; making an attempt on life of the President of the Republic; espionage; smuggling of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and other kinds of mass-destruction armaments.
The number of crimes punishable by the death penalty were further reduced from eight to four - aggression, genocide, terrorism and first-degree murder - through amendments to the Criminal Code that came into effect in October 2001. The amendments also exempted men over 60 years of age alongside women and minors from the death penalty. Provisions for the commutation of death sentences to 25-year jail terms are in place, but life imprisonment does not exist.
On December 6, 2002 a United Nations' rapporteur accused Uzbekistan of routinely using torture to terrorize opponents and obtain confessions which sometimes resulted in courts handing down the death penalty. «Torture as far as I can see, it is my impression, is not just incidental but... is systemic in this country,» UN human rights rapporteur on torture Theo van Boven told a news briefing. He said the forms of torture used by Uzbek police and secret services included beatings, electric shocks, immersion of the victim's head in water and suffocation with plastic bags.
Independent human rights groups have reported an average of 600 arrests for political or religious motives every year. There were at least 6,500 political prisoners in Uzbekistan in 2003.
On May 13, 2005, violence broke out in Andijan, Uzbekistan. President Islam Karimov and other official sources initially indicated that the army responded with gunfire to a gathering of extremists, and that 169 "bandits" were killed. Independent sources, however, estimate that the civilian death toll could be as high as 750 men, women and children.
In Uzbekistan there is no data available on the death penalty, because many cases are subject to the Official Secrets Act, especially those concerning national security, which come under the jurisdiction of a security service answerable solely to the head of the State. Therefore, we have no way of knowing exactly how many inmates or condemned prisoners there are, how many executions have been carried out, or even how many prisons exist in the country.
Executions are generally carried out by shooting. The body of the executed person is not given back to relatives, neither are they informed of the place of burial.
Reported death sentences and executions in Uzbekistan reached alarmingly high levels following the February 1999 bomb explosions in Tashkent which the Uzbek government claimed were attempts on Karimov's life. In July 2000 the general procuracy confirmed that 19 death sentences handed down in 1999 for involvement in the Tashkent bombings had been carried out.
In September 2001, Karimov declared publicly that around 100 people are put to death every year in Uzbekistan. At least 12 executions are known to have been carried out in 2003, but the real total was in all probability much higher.
In 2004, Karimov said around 50 people had been put to death in Uzbekistan.
In 2005 at least 2 executions were carried out in the country.
According to Osce, three people, Yuldash Kasymov, Alisher Khatamov and Ismatillo Abasov, were sentenced to death in different trials in 2004 and 2005 for aggravated murder. All of them presented a recours to the UN Committee for Human rights. According to Amnety International at least 7 death sentences were pronounced in 2005.
Tamara Chikunova, of the Uzbek public association ‘Mothers Against the Death Penalty and Torture’, said that approximately 100 executions take place in Uzbekistan every year.
Amongst the five former Soviet Republics of Central-Asia, only Uzbekistan still practices the death penalty.
On August 1, 2005, Uzbek President Islam Karimov signed a decree stating that “the death penalty shall be cancelled in the Republic of Uzbekistan as of January 1, 2008, as a form of criminal punishment and shall be replaced by sentence for life or long prison terms”.
The three-year delay was motivated in the decree by the need to build new prisons to house people condemned to life terms instead of death, state-run television reported.
The move was based on “generally recognized principles and norms of international law, provisions of the Uzbek Constitution proclaiming the right to life” and had “the purpose of implementing measures to further liberalize criminal punishment” the decree stated.
President Karimov had earlier said it would take at least 2-3 years to abolish the death penalty in the country. Addressing the first joint session of Uzbek parliament's upper and lower houses on January 28, 2005, Karimov said, "The issue in question is not about introducing a moratorium on the death penalty as in some countries where death row inmates have been awaiting the execution of the punishment for many years. The issue here is about its total abolition." According to the president, changes in public opinion were needed since the majority of Uzbek people were in favour of the death penalty.