Lebanon’s parliament has passed a law to abolish capital punishment, making it the first country in the Middle East to do so. The Lebanese parliament’s speaker’s office said lawmakers signed off on the legislation Tuesday after making several amendments. A majority of the 128-member assembly voted in favour of ending the death penalty, with the exception of the parliamentary bloc of Hezbollah. While Lebanon has observed an unofficial moratorium on executions since January 2004, courts have continued to issue dozens of death sentences. At the end of 2025, 85 people were facing death sentences, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Justice’s Directorate of Prisons.