Lebanon becomes first Arab country to abolish death penalty

Lebanon’s parliament today abolished the death penalty, making it the first country in the Arab world to replace the sentencing with life imprisonment with aggravated hard labour. A majority of Lebanon’s 128-member parliament 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. Rights groups that had called for formalising the moratorium or ending the death penalty altogether have also celebrated the vote. Lebanon’s abolition of the death penalty comes as parliament is debating a controversial general amnesty law, the largest since the end of its 15-year civil war in 1990, that could reduce sentences or even release convicted militants and drug dealers, with some exceptions.