After the independence of Azerbaijan in 1991, homosexual acts were legalized in 2000. The official newspaper of the Parliament, published on 28 May 2000, reported that the Parliament had approved a new criminal code, and that the President had signed a decree bringing it into force in September. The old Article 113 (inherited from the Soviet era, and which punished anal sex between men with three years imprisonment) has been replaced with a new Article 150, which bans only forcible sexual acts.