13 December 2025 :

Kyrgyzstan's constitutional court on December 10, 2025 rejected a draft law backed by President Sadyr Japarov that would have brought back the death penalty in the Central Asian state.
The law, which sought to introduce a death sentence for "particularly serious sexual crimes on children" and for "murders committed with rape", can no longer be put to a referendum, which was proposed by the president.
The court said reinstating the death penalty would be "unconstitutional, inadmissible and legally impossible".
"The right to life and the prohibition of capital punishment are fundamental principles" of the Kyrgyz legal system, which is bound to international treaties signed by the government, the court stated.
The verdict is in line with the United Nations' stance, which earlier said bringing back executions would be "a serious breach of international law".
Japarov proposed bringing back the death penalty after the rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl in September that drew widespread outrage in the mountainous country of seven million people.
Kyrgyzstan's last execution was in 1998. The death penalty was abolished in 2007.
Kyrgyzstan was once considered one of the most democratic of the former Soviet republics in Central Asia, but several rights groups have condemned worsening conditions since Japarov came to power in 2021.
Kyrgyz rights groups have said the country needs to improve criminal inquiries and police training.