Human rights activists and legal experts denounced...

Human rights activists and legal experts denounced Lebanon's death penalty as immoral and ineffective at stopping crime at a seminar held at Saint Esprit Kaslik University. The seminar was attended by government officials, religious leaders and legal experts who stressed that capital punishment should be abolished or at least lessened to life imprisonment. Wael Kheir, president of Lebanon's Human and Humanitarian Rights Association said that Lebanon had ordered many executions in addition to the four cases officially registered in 2004. He denounced the penalty, saying that there "is no use behind applying this ultimate punishment in restraining crimes."