Lebanon's parliament on the 11th (local time) passed a bill abolishing the death penalty, the first among Arab countries in the Middle East. The sentences of people already sentenced to death will all be changed to life imprisonment. However, families of Lebanese military and police who lost relatives in attacks by armed groups such as Hezbollah are pushing back, saying the decision spares those who killed their family members.
The office of the speaker of Lebanon's parliament said on the 11th that lawmakers signed the bill abolishing the death penalty after several rounds of revisions. The heaviest punishment to replace execution was set as life imprisonment with forced labor. With the passage of the bill, Lebanese courts will no longer be able to impose the death penalty for any crime. Justice Minister Adel Nassar called the decision a "historic measure" in parliament. The abolition bill will take effect once it passes the cabinet and is approved by President Joseph Aoun. Reuters said the number of lawmakers who voted in favor was not included in the parliamentary statement.
Lebanon is a country of about 5 million people at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, a small state roughly the size of Gyeonggi Province. It borders Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south. It endured a civil war for 15 years starting in 1975, and in recent years has faced turmoil including a collapse in livelihoods and the economy and armed clashes with Israel. In the process, numerous criminals were produced, but abolitionist countries, including in Europe, have refused extradition requests on the grounds that "a suspect handed over to Lebanon could be executed." Minister Nassar said that on human rights grounds and also because "abolishing the death penalty makes it easier to secure the extradition of fugitives who fled overseas."
Contrary to concerns in abolitionist countries, Lebanon has not carried out an execution at any time in the 22 years since January 2004. International human rights groups, taking this into account, classify Lebanon as a "de facto abolitionist state," like Korea. In international terms, this means that while the state does not actually kill people, the death penalty remains in the statutes and can be resumed at any time if the government or public opinion changes.
Lebanese courts likewise continued over the past 22 years to hand down death sentences to defendants who committed crimes such as murder and treason. The Prison Authority of the Ministry of Justice said, "As of the end of last year, 85 people are imprisoned with death sentences finalized." However, to carry out an execution, the president, the prime minister, and the justice minister must all sign the order, and no government leader to date has gone through this procedure. With the abolition bill eliminating the very provisions authorizing executions, major outlets reported that even those with final sentences will retroactively receive life imprisonment instead of death.
Executions in the Middle East and North Africa are on the rise. Last year, excluding China, 2,707 executions were confirmed worldwide, the most since 1981, and most of them took place in the Middle East and North Africa. According to a tally by Amnesty International, the officially recorded executions in the Middle East and North Africa totaled 2,611 last year, up 81% in a year. Iran accounted for the most at 2,159, followed by Saudi Arabia (356) and Yemen (51). The United Arab Emirates (UAE) also resumed executions for the first time in four years. Jordan, which borders Lebanon at close range, carried out an execution in June for the first time in nine years since 2017, and Israel's parliament this year passed a bill expanding the scope of crimes eligible for the death penalty.
The European Union (EU) issued a statement in the name of its high representative on the 11th, saying, "Lebanon has set a strong example for the Middle East and beyond." Lebanon is the first Arab country in the Middle East to abolish capital punishment. Expanding beyond the Middle East to all 22 member states of the Arab League, it is the second after Djibouti, a small country in northeastern Africa with a population of 1.2 million, which abolished the death penalty in 1995.
Lebanon signaled its plan to abolish capital punishment in advance at the World Congress Against the Death Penalty held in Paris on June 30. The EU underscored in its statement that Lebanon kept this promise by enacting it into law. Heba Morayef, Director General for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, which monitors human rights conditions around the world, said, "A precarious moratorium that lasted more than 20 years can now be protected by permanent law."
In Lebanon, families of soldiers and security personnel killed in attacks by Islamist armed groups have repeatedly staged protests against the abolition. Some of them told Reuters and others that they "want the perpetrators who killed our family members to be executed rather than have their sentences reduced." The international community views abolishing capital punishment as a step to improve human rights, but for bereaved families, it is interpreted to mean that how heavy a punishment the perpetrator actually receives matters more. Minister Nassar said, "Abolishing the death penalty does not mean the government will treat crimes lightly."
Although a majority in Lebanon's 128-seat parliament supported abolition, lawmakers from Hezbollah, an Islamist armed faction, did not join the approving ranks. Hezbollah is a Shiite armed organization backed by Iran and a formal political party with seats in parliament. It has been criticized for constraining Lebanon's national sovereignty by possessing military power that exceeds that of the regular Lebanese army, based on vast funds and weapons received from Iran. Major Shiite religious institutions that exert influence across society also issued no notable commentary on abolishing capital punishment. In Lebanon, sect-based religious courts handle matters such as marriage and inheritance, and some of them regard the death penalty as lawful.
Simon Abi Ramia, a veteran figure in Lebanese politics and a lawmaker, told the English-language Middle East outlet The National on the 11th, "We did not abolish a punishment; we abolished the concern that the state could become a killer in the name of the law."