the time of the crime. On 6 July 1999, President Igor Smirnov signed a decree introducing a moratorium on executions with retro-active effect from 1 January 1999. In connection with the preparation of a new Criminal Code, the abolition of the death penalty is currently being discussed in the Supreme Soviet. According to information received from the Prosecutor of Transdniestria, no death sentences were passed in 1998 or 1999. As of 31 December 1999, two prisoners were on death row. One of them, Ilya Ilascu, was sentenced to death by the Judicial Board of the Supreme Court of Transdniestria in 1993 for terrorism and a number of other crimes following a trial that reportedly was politically motivated and failed to meet international standards. The case is currently being examined by the European Court of Human Rights44. 4.12 Russian Federation The 1997 Criminal Code of the Russian Federation foresees capital punishment 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. Women, persons who were below 18 years of age at the time of the crime, and men who had reached the age of 65 at the time of sentencing are exempted from the death penalty45. A moratorium on executions has been in force since August 1996. It is based on a presidential decree. In 1998 the State Duma rejected legislation that would have enshrined the moratorium into law for a three-year period. On 2 February 1999, the Constitutional Court imposed an additional de facto moratorium on the passing of death sentences by its decision to generally prohibit capital punishment verdicts in the Russian Federation until all citizens can be granted the right to jury trials - a process that could take years as jury trials are available only in very few of the Federation's 89 republics, regions and territories46. Upon accession to the Council of Europe in 1996, the Russian Federation undertook to abolish the death penalty and ratify Protocol No. 6 to the ECHR within three years. While this deadline expired on 28 February 1999, the Russian Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD