Lebanon’s parliament on Aug. 11 abolished the death penalty, making the country the first in the Middle East to formally end the practice.
Lebanon had not carried out an execution since 2004, but sentences were still being issued, the latest being on Aug. 10, and Amnesty International said at least 85 people were still on death row by January.
Capital punishment typically applied to major crimes like murder, terrorism and espionage, among others.
The most severe crimes will now be given life sentences with hard labor, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.
Justice Minister Adel Nassar, who was at the parliament, called the abolition “historic” and said the specter of capital punishment had previously prevented Beirut from obtaining the extradition of suspects from countries where it has been outlawed.
Independent lawmaker Firas Hamdan celebrated the move in a post on X, thanking “everyone who contributed, for over more than two decades, to reaching this moment.”
The move was also hailed by the United Nations, with rights chief Volker Turk calling on Lebanon’s neighbors in the Middle East “that still maintain the death penalty to follow its lead in ending this inhumane practice.”
The passing of the law follows years of campaigning by activists and rights groups.
Capital punishment is regularly carried out across the region, with Amnesty International last year recording more than 2,000 executions in Iran and more than 350 in Saudi Arabia.
In June, Jordan hanged six men convicted of killing security personnel, ending a nine-year moratorium on the use of the death penalty.
Neighboring Israel has only applied the death penalty twice: In 1948 against a military captain accused of high treason, and then in 1962, when the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was hanged.
But earlier this year Israel’s parliament passed a new law permitting the execution of Palestinians convicted of fatal attacks.
