Capital punishment in Lebanon
Capital punishment is nominally legal in Lebanon, but no longer officially carried out (de facto abolished) as it has faced opposition from local political movements. Capital crimes in Lebanon include murder, espionage, treason, terrorism, collaborating with Israeli forces and if the crime is especially heinous enough, rape and pedophilia. The methods prescribed by law are hanging and firing squad, although hanging has been the predominant method throughout Lebanese history. This does not include impromptu executions carried out during the Lebanese Civil War but rather those carried out in an official capacity by the government of Lebanon. In the Lebanese Republic, the President has the sole authority to pardon an inmate and all execution orders must be ratified by him.
Executions had sometimes been carried out by local municipalities, such as the hanging of two convicted criminals for the murders of a local Christian brother and sister in the village of Tabarja during the early 1990s. Lebanon also has an extensive history of feuding clans and tribes and vigilante justice, and it is not uncommon to hear of offenders being killed before the police or the justice system could get involved. This is especially common in villages where a more traditional Levantine outlook on justice--"an eye for an eye"—is commonly held.[1]
Blood money is also a tradition not unheard of among Lebanese villages, as on occasion a murderer may settle his vendetta by paying off the family of the victim if the killing was not done out of malice, such as during times of war or self-defence.
