extended prison terms. Even before the abolition, no death sentences were imposed by Federation courts during the period under review, and no one was on death row after the Human Rights Chamber ordered commutation of two pending death sentences into life imprisonment33. 4.6 Georgia Georgia abolished the death penalty in 1997 and signed (but has not yet ratified) Protocol No. 6 to the ECHR in June 1999 following its accession to the Council of Europe. Capital punishment has remained, however, in the statute books of the two separatist, internationally unrecognized entities of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Abkhazia Under the Criminal Code of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic which is still in force in Abkhazia, the death penalty can be applied to a long list of peacetime and wartime offences, including economic crimes. A moratorium is in effect, and there is an ongoing, if very limited, discussion on diminishing the number of crimes carrying the death penalty. While Abkhaz courts apparently did not pass any death sentences in 1998, at least one person was sentenced to death in 1999. The Chairman of the Abkhaz Committee on Human Rights reported in November 1999 that 14 people had been sentenced to death since Abkhazia declared its independence. However, no executions were reported as there seems to be a de facto moratorium in place34. South Ossetia In South Ossetia the Criminal Code of the neighbouring Russian Federation is in use. Thus, courts may pass death sentences for five crimes (aggravated murder, attempt on the life of a state or public leader, attempt on the life of persons implementing jurisprudence of preliminary investigation, attempt on the life of an associate of a law enforcement agency, and genocide). There seems to be an unofficial moratorium on death sentences and executions in place, which Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD