Lebanon is one of the countries that has been executing the death penalty since the 1940s, in accordance with the provisions of the penal code that mentions the sentence in three articles:
Article 547: “Anyone who intentionally kills another person shall be jailed for a term of between 15 and 20 years”
Article 548: “Intentional homicide shall be punished by hard labor for life” (in certain cases)
Article 549: “Intentional homicide shall entail the death penalty” (in certain cases)
When security chaos reached its peak and the number of crimes increased, the law number 302 was issued, according to which the provisions of articles 547 and 548 were suspended while the article 549 was maintained.
This means that any murder shall be punished by a death penalty, based on the principle “a killer shall be killed.”
However, in 2001, the law 302 was suspended in accordance with law 338 after domestic and foreign pressures.
At this point, there are 63 issued death penalties that have not yet been implemented.
This comes after 52 death penalties had been executed since the independence; the first ones being during the era of Beshara al-Khoury, when the sentence was imposed on 19 convicts.
Under the rule of Camille Chamoun, 6 sentences were executed and during Fouad Chehab’s era 3 death penalties were implemented.
Four sentences were applied during Sleiman Frangieh’s presidency, and one during Amin Gemayel’s mandate.
Under Elias al-Hrawi’s rule, 15 penalties were executed; while the last sentence was issued during the presidential mandate of Emile Lahoud against three convicts.
For more details, watch the full report in the video above