Kazakhstan is planning to reduce the number of cases heard by jury trials, Tengrinews reports. The initiative is driven by the country's national specifics. "There are areas where selection of juries is impossible, because they are all relatives. According to the Article 14 of our Constitution, everyone is equal under the law. But in practice, one can ask for a jury trial here in Astana, but one cannot ask for one in Shymkent and a range of other large regions, because everyone around are relatives," Iogan Merkel, First Deputy Prosecutor General of Kazakhstan, explained at today's presentation of the new edition of the Criminal Procedures Code in the Majilis (Lower Chamber of the Parliament).