The Latvian parliament ratified Protocol No. 6 to the ECHR on 15 April 1999, thus de facto abolishing the death penalty for all peacetime offences with effect from 1 June 1999. The Criminal Code was amended accordingly in May 200048. 4.10 Malta Malta signed and ratified Protocol No. 6 to the ECHR in 199148. The death penalty was abolished for all crimes, including those committed during times or war, on 21 March 200049. 4.11 Moldova Transdniestria While Moldova removed the death penalty from its statute books in 1995, capital punishment remained in force in the internationally unrecognized separatist entity of Transdniestria50. The Criminal Code of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, which is still in operation in Transdniestria, provides for the death penalty for state crimes, premeditated murder under aggravating circumstances, rape with grave consequences, rape of a juvenile under 14 years of age, attempt on the life of a member of the militia, and for grave military crimes. Capital punishment may not be imposed on women and persons below 18 years of age at the time of the crime. On 6 July 1999, President Igor Smirnov signed a decree introducing a moratorium on executions with retroactive effect from 1 January 1999. At that time, two prisoners were on death row, one of them, Ilie Ilascu has since been released from prison51. The moratorium is still in place52. 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 official 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 penalty53. 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 Federation has still neither formally abolished the death penalty nor ratified Protocol No. 6. A moratorium on executions, based on a presidential decree, has been in force since August 1996. 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 14