Lebanon has become the first country in the Middle East to abolish the death penalty after a majority of its 128-member parliament voted in favor of scrapping capital punishment on Tuesday, August 12, 2026. Death sentences will now be replaced with life imprisonment with aggravated hard labor.

The country had maintained an unofficial moratorium on executions since January 2004, although its courts continued to issue dozens of death sentences. At the end of 2025, 85 people were still facing death sentences, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Justice’s Directorate of Prisons.

According to the latest Amnesty International report on death sentences and executions, as of December 2025, close to three-quarters of the world’s countries had abolished the death penalty in law or practice, meaning they have not carried out executions for the past 10 years.

Amnesty International recorded 2,707 executions worldwide in 2025, a 78 percent increase from 1,518 in 2024. This spike was primarily attributed to Iran, where executions more than doubled from 972 in 2024 to at least 2,159 in 2025. Executions were carried out in 17 countries, consistent with the historical lows seen since 2018.

Lebanon’s abolition marks a significant milestone in the Middle East’s approach to capital punishment.

Sources