The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area plication of this sentence extended to one additional crime, raising the number to nine. According to amendments to the Criminal Code signed into law on 14 June 2010, attempting to kill the president of Kazakhstan may be punishable by death.21 The newly introduced Article 166-1 of the Criminal Code22 reads that “an attempt upon the life of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan – the Nation’s Leader, committed for the purposes of termination of his state activity or out of revenge for such activity, shall be punished by deprivation of freedom for a period from 15 to 20 years, or by capital punishment or life imprisonment”.23 This development runs against the overall global trend towards the full abolition of the death penalty. RUSSIAN FEDERATION A moratorium on the application of the death penalty has been in place in the Russian Federation since 1996, in line with the country’s agreement to abolish capital punishment as a condition for gaining membership in the Council of Europe.24 In 1999, the Constitutional Court ruled that the death penalty could not be applied until all of the country’s then-89 regions had introduced jury trials.25 Chechnya became the final Russian region to institute jury trials, on 1 January 2010. On 29 October 2009, anticipating this event, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation reportedly sought clarification on the future of the moratorium.26 On 19 November 2009, the Constitutional Court ruled that the moratorium on the death penalty should be extended.27 Court Chairperson Valery Zorkin reportedlyconfirmed that an “irreversible process to abolish capital punishment” was occur- 21  Response to the ODIHR questionnaire on the death penalty from the OSCE Centre in Astana to the OSCE, 14 July 2010. 22  Ibid. The full name of the law is “On the Amendments and Additions to Some Legislative Acts Concerning Modernization of the Legislation in the Sphere of Guaranteeing of Activities of the First President of Kazakhstan - the Nation’s Leader”, № 290 – IV. 23  Ibid. 24  “Honouring of the commitment entered into by Russia upon accession to the Council of Europe to put into place a moratorium on executions of the death penalty”, Report, Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, 28 January 1997, <http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc97/EDOC7746.htm>. 25  “Russia and the Death penalty”, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), 13 September 1999, < http:// www.fidh.org/Russia-and-the-Death-Penalty>. 26  “Top Russian court asked to rule on death penalty moratorium,” RIA Novosti, 29 October 2009, <http://en.rian. ru/russia/20091029/156640779.html>. 27  “Russia enshrines ban on death penalty”, BBC News, 19 November 2009, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8367831.stm>. 5