The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area TAJIKISTAN56 An indefinite moratorium on death sentences and executions has been in place in Tajikistan since July 2004, when the Tajik parliament adopted a law suspending the application of the death penalty.57 Death sentences issued before this date were commuted to 25 years of imprisonment,58 and capital punishment for all future cases was replaced with long-term imprisonment or life sentences without parole. 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 an especially grave crime.”59 Under the Criminal Code, the death penalty can be imposed for aggravated murder, aggravated terrorism, aggravated rape, genocide and biocide.60 Death sentences cannot be handed down against women or offenders under the age of 18.61 56  Permanent Delegation of the Republic of Tajikistan to the OSCE did not provide a response to the 2015 ODIHR questionnaire on the death penalty. 57  Law of the Republic of Tajikistan on the Suspension of Application of the Death Penalty, 15 July 2004 58  Ibid. 59  Constitution of the Republic of Tajikistan, 6 November, 1994, amended on 26 September 1999 and 22 June 2003, Article 18. 60  Criminal Code of the Republic of Tajikistan, 21 May 1998, Article 104 (2), Article 179 (3), Article 138 (3), Article 398, Article 399; according to the Criminal Code, biocide represents use of nuclear, neutron, chemical, biological (bacteriological), climatic or other weapons of mass destruction with the intent of destruction of people and the environment. 61  Ibid. 18