Lebanon's parliament abolished the death penalty, making the country the first in the Middle East to formally end the practice, replacing the sentencing with life imprisonment with aggravated hard labour. "The draft law aimed at abolishing the death penalty in Lebanon was approved after amendments were made to it," the speaker of parliament's office announced.
Lebanon had not carried out an execution since 2004 but sentences were still being issued, the latest being on Monday, and Amnesty International said at least 85 people were still on death row by January. Capital punishment typically applied to major crimes like murder, terrorism and espionage, among others.
Read more here.
