The Armenian parliament passed the third reading of...

The Armenian parliament passed the third reading of the new criminal code, which abolishes capital punishment and replaces it with life imprisonment.
The new code will replace the one in affect since 1961 on August 1, 2003.
However Parliament also approved three waivers to the abolition of capital punishment: it will not apply to those who committed premeditated murder with aggravating circumstances; a terrorist act or raped a child before the new Criminal Code was adopted.
The exception particularly concerns five gunmen and the gunmen's alleged ringleader, Nairi Unanian on trial for the October 1999 attack on the Armenian parliament in which a popular prime minister, the chamber's speaker and six other officials were killed.
In other cases, people sentenced to death before August 1, 2003 will have capital punishment commuted to life imprisonment.
At present, 42 people are on death row in the Central Asian country. The old criminal code envisioned some 30 cases in which the death penalty could be enforced.
A government official and advisor to the chief of police, Mikael Grigoryan, said the adoption of the new criminal code is part of the judicial and legal reform and the implementation of obligations assumed by Armenia upon accession to the Council of Europe.
However this partial abolition may fail to satisfy the human rights watchdog that has long pressed Yerevan for an unconditional ban on the death penalty.
"The Council of Europe's experts in general gave a positive appraisal of the new code, but they spoke against the exceptions to the death penalty," Grigoryan, warned lawmakers as he presented the draft code to the parliament.
Opposition deputies did not take part in the voting.
The Council of Europe had given Armenia until June to pass legislation abolishing capital punishment -- in theory a formality as there has been a moratorium on executions for more than 10 years.
But in Armenia, the debate about abolition is overshadowed by the attack on parliament, and Council of Europe obligations or not, many Armenians want to see the defendants executed if they are found guilty.