Lebanon’s parliament has voted to abolish the death penalty, a move that would make it the first country in the Middle East to formally end capital punishment. Source: BBC News.
A majority of MPs in the 128-seat parliament backed the measure on August 11, while Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc voted against it.
The legislation will now go to the cabinet before being passed to President Joseph Aoun for signing. The government has already expressed its support for the measure.
Lebanon has not carried out an execution since January 2004, although courts have continued to hand down death sentences. Rights groups estimate that more than 78 people remain on death row.
Under the new legislation, capital punishment will be replaced with life imprisonment with hard labour. However, the legislation does not yet set out in detail how the new sentence would be enforced.
Hard labour is already written into Lebanese law but has rarely been implemented in recent years. The country’s financial crisis and overcrowded prisons have limited the authorities’ resources and capacity.
The latest legislation follows years of campaigning by civil society groups and lawyers for the removal of capital punishment from Lebanese law.
“We cannot solve a crime with a crime or end violence with violence,” civil rights campaigner Oragit Younan told the BBC.
As co-founder of the Lebanese Association for Civil Rights, she led a nearly three-decade campaign to abolish the death penalty in Lebanon.
“We are in a war, and people [have been] killed every day, so even in this situation, we can fight, we can struggle for human rights, and we can win. We can be a model for others,” she said.
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Lebanon parliament votes to abolish death penalty (By Samantha Granville, BBC News)
