BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s parliament Tuesday abolished the death penalty, making it the first country in the Arab world to replace the sentencing with life imprisonment with aggravated hard labor. However, dozens of death sentences since then have been issued, but later suspended or commuted. A majority of Lebanon’s 128-member parliament voted in favor of ending the death penalty, with the exception of the parliamentary bloc of Hezbollah. Rights groups that have called for formalizing the moratorium or ending the death penalty altogether have also celebrated the vote. Neither did Lebanon’s diverse religious institutions, where the death penalty is considered legal in some their respective court systems.