Laws in the Lebanese Penal Code are based on the first...

Laws in the Lebanese Penal Code are based on the first Ottoman Penal Code of 1840. In 1943, when Lebanon became independent, a penal code was created based on French laws. The 1810 French Penal Code on honour crimes gave a husband a commuted sentence if he surprises his wife in a compromising situation in their own home and kills or harms one of the two partners without premeditation. This article, along with all punishments concerning adultery, was cancelled in France in 1975. In 1994, capital punishment was reintroduced as an extreme move which the Government wrongly assumed would decrease crime and protect society. The Penal Code provides for the death penalty for premeditated murder. On May 19, 1998, the first public execution in Lebanon since the introduction of the new death penalty law was carried out. Over 1,000 people attended the hanging of two convicted murderers, who were put to death near the victims' house, and their bodies left in public for an hour. The 1994 law on the death penalty has become the subject of public criticism from MPs, human rights activists and many courts that have pronounced death sentences because although not convinced of their verdict they had to abide by a law which denied them the right to issue a lesser penalty. Fourteen executions were carried out between 1994 and the appointment of Salim Hoss as Prime Minister in late 1998.