Kazakhstan is one of the latest countries to abolish the death penalty - it is a country where about 70% of its population are Muslims.
Islam is the largest religion practiced in Kazakhstan, with estimates of about 70.2% [2] of the country's population being Muslim. Ethnic Kazakhs are predominantly Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi school.[3] There are also small number of Shia and few Ahmadi.[4] Geographically speaking, Kazakhstan is the northernmost Muslim-majority country in the world.
For Malaysians, Kazakstan is known as our former Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's son in law is from Kazhakstan, and Malaysians today have 'visa on arrival' status there - i.e., we can fly in and enter easily, without first having to apply for and get any visa.
Kazakhstan scraps death penalty after nearly 20-year moratorium
Kazakh president signs parliamentary ratification of document that commits countries to abolish capital punishment.
![Executions were paused in Kazakhstan from 2003 [File: Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2019-12-05T124817Z_1683860266_RC20PD91EYBI_RTRMADP_3_GERMANY-KAZAKHSTAN.jpg?resize=770%2C513)
The notice published on Saturday said President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev had signed off on parliamentary ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – a document that commits signatories to the abolition of capital punishment.
Executions were paused in Kazakhstan from 2003 but courts continued to sentence convicts to death in exceptional circumstances, including for crimes deemed “acts of terror”.
Ruslan Kulekbayev, a lone gunman who killed eight policemen and two civilians during a rampage in Kazakhstan’s largest city Almaty in 2016, was among the convicts set to be executed if the moratorium were lifted.
Kulekbayev will serve a life sentence in jail instead.
Life imprisonment was introduced in Kazakhstan in 2004 as an alternative punishment.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights was adopted in 1966, entered into force in 1976, and 173 states acceded to it.
The Second Optional Protocol to it, aimed at the abolition of the death penalty, was adopted on December 15, 1989, and came into force in 1991.
Kazakhstan’s parliament ratified the protocol on December 29. Apart from Kazakhstan, 88 other nations are members of the agreement.
“The signatory countries take the following obligations: first, not
to apply the death penalty, second, to take all necessary measures to
abolish the death penalty within their jurisdiction. The only exception
is the death penalty is allowed in case of wartime,” Kazakhstan’s
Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tleuberdi said at the time. - Al-Jazeera, 2/1/2021
Najib: Seized items belonged to daughter, in-law was married to Kazakhstan’s richest man
KUALA LUMPUR, May 8 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has claimed that the items confiscated from his house on May 18 last year actually belonged to his daughter, and not him.
He said this is the case as his daughter’s mother-in-law was married to a man considered one of the richest in his home country of Kazakhstan for 10 years.
“My daughter’s mother-in-law and her child also live with us. Many things confiscated by the police belong to them, including presents my daughter and her husband received,” Najib said in a Facebook post.
Although he did not mention his daughter’s name, Najib is referring to Nooryana Najwa and her husband Daniyar Kessikbayev, who tied the knot in March 2015.
Kessikbayev is the nephew of former Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev, who recently stepped down from office in March after nearly 30 years in power.
Najib claimed that Kessikbayev’s mother, noted Kazakh socialite Maira Nazarbayeva, had spent up to US$75 million (RM311 million) of her ex-husband’s money to buy jewellry from just one jeweller during their marriage.
He attached a news article to his Facebook post which said that in 2013 Nazarbayeva’s ex-husband, oligarch Bolat Nazarbayev, accused her of purchasing the jewellery from Jacob and Co.
The report also said Nazarbayev was pursuing a lawsuit against her and her son from another marriage on grounds they duped him out of a 4,000 sq ft apartment in New York worth US$20 million (RM83 million).
Najib said the items confiscated can only be held for three months, according to law, but could be extended once for an additional nine months by the Attorney General’s Chambers.
“The confiscation date will expire in 10 more days, after which the items must be legally returned if the authorities fail to prove they were purchased using illegitimate funds and have filed no charges on the ownership of said items.
“Until today there have been no charges laid. However, Pakatan Harapan has used the seizure of the assets as a very cruel propaganda tool to humiliate me by accusing me of obtaining money and the items from illegitimate activities or 1MDB,” he said.
Najib dismissed the claim that the seized items amounted to RM1 billion.
“Having served as an MP for 43 years, then a minister, former deputy prime minister and then prime minister, I had the chance to meet and get to know many friends and royals both within and outside the country.
“In that time my family and I have been given all sorts of gifts at their events, including weddings, anniversaries and birthdays,” he said.
Najib cited one gift from the King of Saudi Arabia, a portion of the kiswah cloth that adorns the Ka’aba in Mecca said to be worth US$20 million (RM83 million), which he said was actually worth more as it was a personal gift to him from the king.
“Yet as with the rest of their propaganda and their slander, Pakatan cannot and is incapable of proving this as every donation received was recorded, listed down and investigated to their satisfaction.
“If returned, certainly it will prove me to not be corrupt, or having purchased the items using 1MDB money or other illegitimate sources of money,” he said.
Earlier today, it was reported that Putrajaya and the police have initiated legal action to forfeit property, jewellery, luxury goods, vehicles and other valuables seized during raids on Najib last year over the 1MDB corruption scandal.
According to The Edge Markets, two notices of the civil forfeiture action were submitted to the High Court yesterday informing it of the intent to take ownership of the items Najib and his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, were suspected of obtaining using stolen 1MDB funds.
The news outlet said it learned that the first notice was for an unnamed property in the Klang Valley and goods such as jewellery, designer handbags, watches, and sunglasses valued at RM680 million.
Another motion was for the intended forfeiture of 27 luxury vehicles, watches, bags and money contained in 29 bank accounts, all of which amounted to RM31 million in appraised value.
The police’s Commercial Crimes Investigation Department conducted high-profile and repeated raids on locations linked to Najib last year and filled several Black Marias with items seized under the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act (AMLATFA) 2001.
Police had raided luxury condominiums at the Pavilion Residences and Najib’s personal mansion on Langgak Duta, both here. - Malay Mail, 8/5/2019
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