04 June 2018 :

24 March 2017: the new Code on Military Justice which abolished the death penalty came into force. It was approved on 7 March by the National Assembly. The new code introduces additional guarantees, such as the one for which the military tribunals do not judge civilians, nor minors and will be composed of civil magistrates who swear to serve in military tribunals.
The draft reform of the Code of Military Justice was initiated in 2008 with a review committee of the penal codes, criminal procedure and military justice to replace the rules of 1985. After a suspension, the project was presented by the Minister of Justice, Flavien Mbata, and Minister of Defense Joseph Yakété, to the Council of Ministers which adopted it on 9 December 2016 and then it was forwarded to the National Assembly.
The Code of Military Justice is the second text which does not provide for the death penalty, after the Special Criminal Court, established in 2015, had excluded it by integrating the Rome Statute into domestic law, in line with the rules of international criminal justice. Now, the penal code should be harmonized with theinternational conventions ratified by the Central African Republic.