A three-year moratorium on executions had been introduced in May 1995. Although it had not been officially extended following its expiry, a de facto moratorium based on the competence of the Supreme Court and the President to commute death sentences into life imprisonment had remained in place21. The Constitutional Court's ruling came at a time when tendencies aimed at lifting the moratorium enjoyed widespread public support due to the violent events of late 1997 and a significant rise in the crime rate. Albanian courts passed six death verdicts in 1998. During 1999, capital punishment was not in active use anymore. However, ten prisoners still were on death row when the existing death sentences were commuted following the de facto abolition of capital punishment in December 1999. No execution has been carried out since May 199522. 4.2. Armenia Thirteen offences carry a possible death sentence under the present Criminal Code of Armenia which has been in force, as amended, since 1961, including, inter alia, treason, espionage, terrorist acts, sabotage, crimes against the State, banditry, forgery or circulation of false money or securities, aggravated murder or rape, hijacking, and bribe taking. The military section of the Criminal Code provides for an additional 16 capital crimes in times of war. The death penalty may not be imposed on persons below 18 years of age at the time of the crime, on pregnant women, or the insane23. Although Armenia announced at the October 1998 UN Human Rights Committee hearings that a new Criminal Code completely abolishing the death penalty would come into force by 1 January 199924, the draft is still awaiting its final reading in parliament. In view of the slow parliamentary process, the Presidential Commission on Human Rights and non-governmental organizations proposed to ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR as a faster way to abolition. According to the Armenian Constitution, international treaties ratified by the parliament become a constituent part of the legal system and prevail over other laws. Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD