It is the first Arab nation to substitute the sentence for life imprisonment with aggravated hard labor
Lebanon has banned the death penalty in a historic move that sees it become the first nation in the Arab world to substitute the sentence for life imprisonment with aggravated hard labor.
The Associated Press reported that the majority of the country’s 128-strong parliament voted to abolish the sentence on Tuesday August 11; only the Hezbollah parliamentary bloc was against. While an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty had been set since January 2004, the sentence continued to be issued although they were either suspended or commuted.
Legislators said the hard labor punishment had not been clarified yet even though it has been enshrined in law and referenced in court judgments. However, it has not been enforced often of late due to limited resources and prison overcrowding.
Justice minister Adel Nassar, a member of parliament, described the ban as a “historic step” in Lebanon, per a statement published by AP News. Ramzi Kaiss, Human Rights Watch Lebanon researcher, said the vote showed the country “marking a final break from a cruel sentence that should never be imposed.”
“Capital punishment is unique in its cruelty and finality and is plagued with arbitrariness, prejudice, and error,” Kaiss said in a statement published by AP News.
The Hezbollah bloc did not immediately provide comment on the vote’s outcome. Religious institutions in Lebanon also kept mum; the court systems of some of these institutions considers the death penalty to be legal.
The next legislative issue on the Lebanon parliament’s plate is a general amnesty law that would shorten the sentences of convicted militants and drug dealers. It is the most significant granting of amnesty since Lebanon concluded a 15-year civil war in 1990.
The general amnesty law excludes perpetrators of rape, human trafficking, corruption, funding acts of terrorism, and premeditated murder; however, those who killed Lebanese soldiers could be granted reduced jail time. Lawmakers seek to advance the legislation due to the prison overcrowding concern.
Under the law, more than 3,000 out of almost 8,600 prisoners would be released. Some of the prisoners would have been incarcerated for at least 14 years without undergoing trial.
Family members of soldiers and servicemen who were victims of Islamist militant groups have challenged the legislation, with some expressing hope that the guilty would face execution.
