TAJIKISTAN In April 2004, in the same month that the moratorium on executions was announced, Rachabmurod Chumayev and Umed Idiyev were executed while their cases were pending before the UN Human Rights Committee. The UN Human Rights Committee had urged the authorities of Tajikistan to stay the executions while it considered their cases. In addition, a total of five other persons were executed while their cases were pending before the UN Human Rights Committee in 2001 and 2002. Pardon or commutation The Constitution gives the president authority to grant clemency.110 The death sentence can be commuted to 25 years' imprisonment.111 The cases of all persons sentenced to death are automatically considered by the Clemency Commission regardless of whether the person sentenced to death has submitted an appeal for clemency.112 Sentences are not executed until a decision on clemency has been issued. Official statistics were not provided. According to unofficial statistics compiled from media reports and information received from non-governmental organizations, at least 16 appeals for clemency were rejected in 2002. Relatives Relatives are not informed in advance of the date of execution. The body is not returned, and the place of execution and the place of burial are not disclosed.113 The Criminal Executive Code provides that the court that passed the death sentence should inform the relatives of the fact that the execution has taken place. However, the Criminal Executive Code does not indicate the time frame after execution within which this information should be made available to the relatives. The relatives of Rachabmurod Chumayev, Umed Idiyev, Akbar Radzhabov, and Mukharam Fatkhulloyev, who were executed on 22-23 April 2004, had not received official notification of the execution from the sentencing court by the time of publication. 110 111 112 113 Article 69 (27) of the Constitution. Article 216 of the Criminal Executive Code provides that persons sentenced to death can apply to the president for clemency. Article 59 of the Criminal Code. The Commission was established by Presidential Decree No. 721, 8 May 1997. Article 221, Criminal Executive Code. Information of this nature is treated as a state secret. Article 9 (22), Law “On the enumeration of information constituting a state secret”, 10 May 2002. 35