[2][3] The legal method of execution in Kazakhstan had been shooting, specifically a single shot to the back of the head.
[4][5] On 17 December 2003, President Nursultan Nazarbayev introduced a moratorium on executions, and later commuted the death sentences of some 40 inmates to life in prison.
[citation needed] On 23 September 2020, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced that Kazakhstan had signed the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and ratified it on 24 March 2022.
[7][8] In 2006, former police officer Rustam Ibragimov was sentenced to death for masterminding the assassination of prominent politician Altynbek Sarsenbayuly.
[citation needed] In November 2016, a court in Kazakhstan sentenced mass-murderer Ruslan Kulikbayev to death for terrorism after he was convicted of killing ten people (including 8 policemen) in a shooting attack against police officers in Almaty.