Law on the Prohibition and Prosecution of Smuggling, and the Law on Forestry. Pregnant women sentenced to death may not be executed before they have given birth. Mentally ill persons may not be executed unless they have recovered. A Bill on a new Penal Code currently being examined by the Grand National Assembly abolishes the death penalty during peacetime 68. A de facto moratorium on executions has been in force since 1984, as the Grand National Assembly has not voted on any death sentences brought before it for final ratification. The finalized sentences are held without processing at the Justice Committee. However, following the verdict in the trial against Kurdish Workers’ Party leader Abdullah Öcalan who was sentenced to death on 29 June 1999 it is not clear whether this practice will be further maintained. After Öcalan's death sentence was confirmed by the Turkish Appeal Court in November 1999, the Government decided in January 2000 to halt the presentation of the death sentence for final approval to the parliament until the European Court of Human Rights decides on the case. The European Court of human Rights has adopted an ad interim measure under art. 39 of the Rules of Procedure, asking for the suspension of the execution awaiting the final judgement. At least 21 death sentences were handed down by Turkish civil and military courts in 1998. In 1999, a total of at least 24 death sentences were passed, of which 3 were upheld by the Appeal Court69. According to official information, there were 40 prisoners under sentence of death in Turkish prisons as of 1 January 199970. During the year 2000, at least 80 death sentences were passed, 28 of which were later commuted to prison terms. By the end of 2000 the death sentences of 71 other people had been upheld by the Appeal Court and submitted to parliament for final confirmation71. 4.15 Turkmenistan The death penalty was formally abolished in Turkmenistan at the annual session of the People's Assembly (Halk Maslahaty) on 29 December 1999. In signing the law abolishing capital punishment, President Saparmurat Niyazov stated that existing death sentences would be automatically commuted into prison terms72. A moratorium on executions had been in force since 1 January 1999. Before the moratorium was introduced, the death penalty had been thought to be widely applied in Turkmenistan, very often in drug-related cases. No official statistics had been available, however, as, in violation of paragraph 17.8 of the Copenhagen Document, information on the use of the death penalty had been classified as a state secret. Executions had been reported to be often carried out promptly following the court's decision, with only a perfunctory appeal and clemency process73. Given the poor prison conditions in Turkmenistan, which have led to numerous deaths from untreated disease and overcrowding, international observers have questioned the meaningfulness of the recent move to abolish capital punishment. 17