From: Abraham Rein (ARein@sorosny.org)
Date: Wed Aug 16 2000 - 12:09:45 EDT
KAZAKH, UZBEK PRESIDENTS SEEK TO EXPEDITE LEGAL REFORM.
Addressing prominent lawyers in Astana on 14 August,
Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbaev instructed them to
prepare amendments to the bill "On the Courts and the Status
of Judges," Interfax reported. That law is intended to
strengthen the independence of the judiciary from the
executive. In Tashkent. Uzbek President Islam Karimov issued
a decree similarly intended to make the country's legal
system more democratic, Interfax reported. The decree will
ensure the prompt conduct of trials and increase the legal
protection of individual, political, social and economic
rights and freedoms, according to the presidential press
service. Meanwhile, Amnesty International on 15 August issued
an appeal on behalf of four young Uzbek men whose appeals
against the death sentences handed down to them by a
Samarkand court for separate murders have been rejected. LF
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