Lebanon Becomes First Arab Country to Abolish Death Penalty

The Lebanese Parliament has voted in favor of abolishing the death penalty, making the country the first in the Arab world to adopt such a decision, as reported by The Times of Israel.

The death penalty will be replaced by life imprisonment with hard labor. A majority of the 128-member parliament voted in favor of the initiative, while the Hezbollah faction opposed it.

Lebanon's Minister of Justice, Adel Nassar, called the decision a "historic step." An unofficial moratorium on executions had been in place in Lebanon since January 2004. Since then, dozens of death sentences have been issued, but they were not carried out or were later replaced with other forms of punishment.