Lebanon has become the first country in the Middle East to abolish the death penalty. Death sentences will be replaced with life imprisonment with aggravated hard labour. Lebanon has observed an unofficial moratorium on executions since January 2004, but its 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. Executions were carried out in 17 countries, consistent with the historical lows seen since 2018.