The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area In September 2013, an opinion poll carried out by the Public Opinion Foundation found that, among 1,000 respondents in Russia, 68 per cent think that the death penalty is acceptable, while 24 per cent believe it to be inadmissible.83 TAJIKISTAN An indefinite moratorium on death sentences and executions has been in place in Tajikistan since 15 July 2004. Death sentences issued before this date have been commuted to 25 years of imprisonment,84 and capital punishment has been replaced with long-term imprisonment or life sentences without parole for all future cases. Nevertheless, national legislation continues to retain the death penalty as a possible punishment for particularly grave offences. The Constitution of the Republic of Tajikistan states that no person may be deprived of life “except by the verdict of a court for a particularly serious crime”.85 Under the Criminal Code, the death penalty can be imposed for aggravated murder, acts of terrorism that result in death, the rape of a minor (under 14 years of age), genocide and biocide.86 During the reporting period, a Working Group to revise the Criminal Code was established.87 The Group, which is comprised of representatives of the relevant ministries and other state institutions, aims at “humanizing the criminal legislation of Tajikistan and commuting penalties for certain particularly grave offences”.88 The Working Group on the study of social and legal aspects of the abolition of the death penalty, active since 2010, continued its work. According to the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Tajikistan to the OSCE, the Working Group is currently implementing activities in line with its action plan. These include studying international practice and the national laws of abolitionist countries, analyzing 83  “Этические нормы в современной России”, Фонд Общественное Мнение [Ethical norms in modern Russia, Public Opinion Foundation], 6 September2013, <http://fom.ru/TSennosti/11069>. 84  Response to the ODIHR questionnaire on the death penalty from the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Tajikistan to the OSCE, received on 14 August 2014. 85  Article 18 of the Constitution of the Republic of Tajikistan, 6 November 1994, amended on 26 September 1999 and 22 June 2003. 86  Article 104 (2), Article 179 (3), Article 138 (3), Article 398, Article 399 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Tajikistan, 21 May 1998, amended on 3 July 2012. In its response to the ODIHR questionnaire on the death penalty, the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Tajikistan to the OSCE stated that the Criminal Code of 1961 provided for the imposition of the death penalty for 52 crimes. In the country’s Criminal Code adopted in 1998, the number of crimes carrying the death penalty was reduced to 15. With the introduction of a moratorium on the death penalty, the law number 35 “About amendments and additions to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Tajikistan” was adopted on 17 May 2004, further reducing the number of crimes that carry the death penalty to five. 87  Tajikistan Response, op. cit., note 84. 88  Ibid. 23