Lebanon becomes first Middle East country to end death penalty

To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Cover image: © France 24 02:53 Issued on: 12/08/2026 - 17:24 Lebanon’s parliament voted on Tuesday to abolish the death penalty, making the country the first in the Middle East to do so. Lebanon has not carried out an execution since 2004, but death sentences have continued to be handed down, with the latest issued on Monday. Amnesty International says at least 85 people were still on death row as of January this year. Capital punishment in Lebanon has typically applied to serious crimes including murder, terrorism and espionage. France 24 correspondent Renée Davis reports the latest from Beirut. Keywords for this article