Lebanon parliament votes to end death penalty, 1st in Middle East to do so

Death sentences will be replaced with Life Imprisonment with Aggravated Hard Labour.Lebanon’s parliament has passed a law to abolish Capital Punishment, making it the first country in the Middle East to do so.The Lebanese parliament’s speaker’s office said lawmakers signed off on the legislation Tuesday after making several amendments.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3‘No red line’: South Lebanon residents outraged as Israel resumes strikeslist 2 of 3Lebanon points to ‘positive progress’ on borders, prisoners in Israel talkslist 3 of 3Iran, US set new conditions during Hormuz talks: What does this mean?end of listA majority of the 128-member assembly voted in favour of ending the death penalty, with the exception of the parliamentary bloc of Hezbollah.Justice Minister Adel Nassar, who was in parliament, called it a “historic step” for the country.The new system replaces the death sentence with Life Imprisonment with Aggravated Hard Labour.While Lebanon has observed an unofficial moratorium on executions since January 2004, courts have continued to issue dozens of death sentences.At the end of 2025, 85 people were facing death sentences, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Justice’s Directorate of Prisons.‘Lasting legal protection’Rights group Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa director, Heba Morayef, praised Lebanon’s move to end Capital Punishment as “a major milestone and a victory for Human Rights in the country”.“After more than two decades without executions, today’s step transforms a precarious hiatus in executions into lasting legal protection upholding the right to life and bringing Lebanon in line with the global trend towards abolition,” Morayef said.It is unclear how aggravated hard labour would be enforced, with some legislators saying the terms of the new punishment are not yet clear. Lebanon does have the punishment of hard labour written into law and court decisions, but even those have been rarely enforced in recent years due to cash-strapped Lebanon’s lack of resources and capacity within its overcrowded prisons.