Lebanon reinstated the death penalty in 1994 in a bid to stem a rise in violent crime following the 1975-90 civil war.

Lebanon reinstated the death penalty in 1994 in a bid to stem a rise in violent crime following the 1975-90 civil war.
Crimes punishable by death are: murder, attempted murder, treason, espionage, robbery aggravated, economic crimes, military offences, collaboration with Israel, terrorism and acts of riot and strife. Lebanon and Israel technically remain at war, and more than 100 people in Lebanon have been arrested since 2009 on suspicion of collaborating with the Jewish State.
Article 302 of the Penal Code had prescribed a mandatory death sentence for all premeditated murders and stripped judges of discretion to consider mitigating factors. In July 2001, the Lebanese Parliament voted unanimously to repeal this law and leave the application of the death penalty to the discretion of judges.
On the basis of the Lebanese Constitution, it is necessary to have the signature of the President, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice to carry out an execution.
The last public executions took place on May 19, 1998 and sparked an uproar because the gallows did not work properly. Over 1,000 people attended the hanging of two convicted murderers, who were put to death near the victims' house, with their bodies left in public view for an hour. Between 1994 and 1998, 14 murderers were executed by hanging or firing squad.
When President Emile Lahoud took over from Elias Hrawi in 1998, executions were interrupted because then Prime Minister Salim Hoss, an opponent of the death penalty, refused to sign any execution orders.
In December 2001, President Lahoud pledged to maintain a moratorium on executions for the duration of his mandate. However on January 17, 2004 three Lebanese men sentenced to death for murder were executed at dawn in Rumieh prison, northeast of Beirut, on his authorisation.
The first campaign in Lebanon against the death penalty dates back to 1998, when several activists rallied in Tabajra to protest the execution of Wissam N. and Hassan A. “From that day onwards, civil society’s battle to defend life and refuse death as part of the law began,” according to Abbott Hadi Ayya, who is active in the group Justice and Mercy. “The death penalty is not a solution and has not helped reduce crime. It only increased the number of victims by observing the barbaric law of an eye for an eye,” said Ayya.
In 2008, former Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar introduced a draft amendment to the law requiring the abolition of the death penalty, but the amendment has yet to be put on the cabinet’s agenda.
In November 2010, Lebanon was reviewed under the Universal Periodic Review of the UN Human Rights Council. It rejected recommendations to introduce a legal moratorium on executions and to abolish the death penalty. However, “the executive has for a number of years imposed an effective moratorium, in that it has tended not to put decisions ordering the death penalty into effect,” underlined the National report submitted to HRC on 23 August 2010, adding that “the courts often acknowledge extenuating circumstances and commute the death penalty to life imprisonment.”
On 22 September 2011, parliament approved a bill amending law No. 463/2002 on the implementation of sentences, creating a formal status for those “sentenced to death without being executed.” This amendment is a sign that the concept of punishment in the Lebanese penal system has begun to evolve. Indeed, although the amendment did not abolish the death penalty, it has enhanced the unofficial position of the Lebanese authorities in favour of a de facto moratorium on executions.
In a 2012 Gallup poll, up to 63 percent of the respondents said they were in favor of the death penalty for a person convicted of murder.
Although a large number of death sentences have been passed since Lebanon's independence, only 51 people have been executed and in the country a de facto moratorium on executions continues to be in place since 2004. This figure does not include sentences issued during the Civil War when the judicial system collapsed and militias passed "sentences" without trials.
In 2011, at least 8 new death sentences were imposed and another 34 in 2012, as of 26 April, including eight people charged with collaborating with Israel.
On December 20, 2012, Lebanon abstained on the Resolution on a Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty at the UN General Assembly.