Overview
- Parliament, which voted on Tuesday, approved a law removing the death penalty and converting existing death sentences into life imprisonment with aggravated hard labour.
- The measure is not yet law because it must be transmitted to the cabinet, signed by President Joseph Aoun and published in the Official Gazette before it takes effect.
- Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc opposed the vote and walked out, while a majority of MPs backed the change and justice officials hailed it as a major rights reform.
- Human rights groups and the UN welcomed the move and urged immediate commutation of those on death row and ratification of the international treaty that would lock in abolition.
- Practical questions remain about how 'aggravated hard labour' will be defined and enforced and how Lebanon will manage severe prison overcrowding and limited resources, and the vote overlaps with debate over a controversial general amnesty bill that has raised accountability concerns.