LEBANON ABOLISHES DEATH PENALTY, FIRST IN ARAB WORLD

Lebanon's parliament voted on Tuesday to abolish capital punishment, replacing the death penalty with life imprisonment and hard labour. A majority of the 128-member parliament supported the measure, which will now proceed to the cabinet before requiring presidential approval. Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc voted against the legislation. Justice Minister Adel Nassar described the decision as a "historic step" for the country.

Lebanon has observed an unofficial moratorium on executions since January 2004, yet courts have continued to issue death sentences throughout that period. According to one estimate, more than 78 people remain on death row. The new legislation does not yet specify in detail how the hard labour sentence will be enforced; whilst hard labour is formally written into Lebanese law, it has rarely been applied in recent years owing to financial constraints and severe prison overcrowding. Human rights campaigners and civil rights organisations have welcomed the vote after decades of advocacy to remove capital punishment from the statute book.

The vote arrives as parliament debates a general amnesty law that could reduce prison sentences or lead to the release of certain convicted individuals. Relatives of Lebanese soldiers and servicemen killed or attacked by militant groups have demonstrated against the amnesty bill, with some arguing perpetrators should face execution rather than lighter sentences. Lebanon's diverse religious institutions, which retain capital punishment within their own court systems, have not yet commented on the parliamentary decision.