News Update: Lebanon Abolishes Death Penalty

A country at war where life nevertheless continues. Lebanon has moved to abolish the death penalty, with a Parliamentary vote on 11 August 2026 resulting in a majority in favour of ending the use of capital punishment. This means that courts will no longer have the power to order the death of a person convicted of a crime, and no person will be sentenced to death in Lebanon.

This development is significant, placing Lebanon as the only country in the Middle East and one of only two countries (alongside Djibouti) in the Arabic speaking world to have abolished capital punishment. Lebanese civil society groups have long campaigned in demand of the abolition of the death penalty. In Lebanon, the death penalty was a punishment reserved for certain kinds of homicide (including murder), terrorism offences, treason and espionage.

This parliamentary act will not only apply to future criminal cases, they will equally apply retroactively, meaning that criminals previously sentenced to death will have their sentence commuted (reduced) to life imprisonment with hard labour. The details of what hard labour will entail are unclear to date. There are currently 85 convicted persons on death row in Lebanon, they will be on death row no longer.

Voices in favour of capital punishment have often expressed concern that life imprisonment is insufficient in its severity as a consequence of heinous crimes such as murder, and that the expenses incurred by the state are unjustified.[1] It is likely that the imposition of hard labour, as an additional measure, is intended to address both concerns.

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[1] The expense of executions is largely underestimated and taken lightly. It has been found that executions can, and often do, cost more than life imprisonment. This is because there are factors incurring costs, such as mandatory appeals, equipment purchase, maintenance and replacement, staffing, training, witness costs, medical expenses, particular death row costs and other costs: https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/policy/costs