Kazakh Senate approves bill to improve criminal legislation

In Kazakhstan, a convicted person who has been diagnosed with a serious illness is eligible to serve his sentence later after receiving operative treatment. First-time prisoners will be kept separately from recurrent prisoners. The Kazakh Parliament has approved amendments aimed at humanization of criminal legislation, criminal executive legislation, as well as improving criminal justice and law enforcement. The document also provides for a regulation in relation to convicted women with children. Now they have the right to keep a child under the age of four with them, provided that they have less than a year left to serve their term in prison. In total, the amendments cover six areas through which it is planned to expand the mechanisms for the implementation of human rights in the field of criminal justice. In particular, the document provides for the introduction of an electronic format of the investigation.

“The proposed amendments will be introduced to the Criminal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code, the Criminal Executive Code, and the Law on National Security of Kazakhstan. They are aimed at strengthening citizens' rights, complying with the requirements of the United Nations Convention against Torture, and strengthening responsibility for a number of crimes. Internal affairs agencies carry out 95 percent of all investigated cases in the country. It’s a very large volume. This process is now being actively digitalized to reduce the workload of officers. Last year, the police had investigated 91 percent of criminal cases in an electronic format,” said Marat Akhmetzhanov, Kazakh Interior Minister.