Mongolia moratorium on executions

Mongolia’s president has imposed a moratorium on the death penalty, although changing the law to implement a permanent ban on executions will still have to pass Mongolia’s opposition-dominated parliament.

Rights groups welcomed the remarks by Elbegdorj Tsakhia on Thursday, hailing the move as a step toward outlawing executions.

Citing two recent cases Elbegdorj said “the state would have killed innocent citizens” if the appeals courts had not overturned death sentences and dropped them altogether.

“The majority of the world’s countries have chosen to abolish the death penalty. We should follow this path,” he said in a speech.

“From tomorrow, I’ll pardon those on death row,” he added. “I suggest commuting the death penalty to a 30-year severe jail sentence.”

Before Thursday’s announcement, Mongolia had been considering changing its criminal code to limit the death penalty to cases of assassination and premeditated murder.

Currently, the eight crimes that carry the death penalty include treason, espionage and certain cases of rape.