Lebanon’s parliament voted Tuesday to abolish the death penalty, replacing capital punishment with life imprisonment and hard labor in what the country’s justice minister described as a “historic step.”

The legislation makes Lebanon the first Arab country to formally abolish the death penalty in law, according to a report by Ynet.

A majority of lawmakers in Lebanon’s 128-member parliament supported the measure, with Hezbollah reportedly the only parliamentary faction to oppose it.

Lebanon has effectively maintained a moratorium on executions since 2004, when the country last carried out a death sentence. However, capital punishment remained part of Lebanese law and courts continued to hand down death sentences in dozens of cases.

Those sentences were either not carried out or were subsequently commuted to other forms of punishment.

Lebanese Justice Minister Adel Nassar hailed parliament’s approval of the legislation as a “historic step.”

Human rights organizations also welcomed the decision.

Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the move marked a definitive break with what he described as a cruel punishment that should never have been imposed.

Under the newly approved legislation, death sentences will instead be replaced with life imprisonment accompanied by hard labor.

However, questions remain over precisely how the new punishment will be implemented. Several lawmakers reportedly acknowledged that the conditions and definition of the enhanced hard-labor provision remain unclear.

Lebanon’s notoriously overcrowded and underfunded prison system could also complicate implementation of the new sentences.

The landmark vote comes as Lebanese lawmakers simultaneously debate a proposed general amnesty law that could reduce sentences or potentially lead to the early release of certain prisoners.

That proposal has generated opposition from families of Lebanese soldiers and security personnel who were killed or wounded by Islamist organizations.

Hezbollah opposed abolishing the death penalty on the grounds that lawmakers should first approve the proposed amnesty legislation.

The terror group reportedly argued that the combination of the two laws could ultimately result in punishments being reduced too significantly for individuals convicted of attacking Hezbollah members.

Despite Hezbollah’s objections, parliament approved the abolition, formally removing capital punishment from Lebanese law after more than two decades without an execution.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)