BEIRUT Aug 13, 2026 — Lebanon’s parliament has formally abolished the death penalty, making the country the first in the Arab world to end capital punishment in law.
In a landmark vote on Tuesday, August 11, 2026, a majority of the 128-member parliament approved legislation that replaces the death sentence with life imprisonment with aggravated hard labor. The move ends more than two decades of a de facto moratorium on executions that had been in place since January 2004, when Lebanon carried out its last hangings.
Justice Minister Adel Nassar, who attended the session, described the decision as a “historic step” for the country. “This step moves Lebanon from being a state that sentences people to death to one that has replaced the death penalty with life imprisonment,” he said.
Under the new law, all existing death sentences will be commuted to life imprisonment with hard labor. Courts had continued to hand down death sentences for crimes such as murder and treason even during the unofficial moratorium, leaving dozens of people on death row. At the end of 2025, 85 inmates were facing capital punishment, according to the Ministry of Justice.
The parliamentary bloc of Hezbollah opposed the bill, while the rest of the assembly voted in favor. The legislation abolishes the death penalty wherever it appears in Lebanese law, including the Penal Code.
Human rights organizations welcomed the decision. Ramzi Kaiss of Human Rights Watch said Lebanon was “marking a final break from a cruel sentence that should never be imposed.” Amnesty International’s regional director Heba Morayef called it “a major milestone and a victory for human rights,” noting that it transforms a long-standing pause on executions into lasting legal protection.
The European Union and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk also praised the vote, with Türk describing Lebanon as the first country in the region to take this step and urging others to follow.
The abolition comes as parliament continues to debate a broader and controversial general amnesty bill, the largest proposed since the end of Lebanon’s civil war in 1990.
Lebanon’s decision places it ahead of other Arab states, the vast majority of which still retain the death penalty in law, though several have maintained long-term moratoriums on actual executions.
About The Author
