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The Presidential Palace in Nur-Sultan, the capital of Kazakhstan (formerly Astana)
Photo: SHAMIL ZHUMATOV / REUTERS
Kazakhstan has finally abolished the death penalty, which had been suspended for almost two decades.
The presidential office of the Central Asian country announced on its website that President Kassym-Shomart Tokayev has signed a corresponding regulation.
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Last year the country joined the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which only allows executions in wartime for "particularly serious crimes of a military nature".
The execution of the death penalty had been suspended in the authoritarian ruled Central Asian country since 2003.
The courts continued to sentence defendants to death for particularly serious crimes.
For example, the death penalty was imposed on a gunman who killed ten people in Almaty in 2016.
The perpetrator now has to serve a life sentence.
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bah / AFP / dpa