The Lebanese president, Joseph Aoun, signed on Monday the law that abolishes the death penalty in the country, thus giving effect to the agreement reached last week by the Parliament of Lebanon to put an end to a practice that, in reality, had been suspended 'de facto' since 2004.
The norm approved by the Lebanese Chamber establishes the elimination of the death penalty for those already convicted and provides that it be replaced by life imprisonment with "aggravated forced labor".
This advance has been supported by the European Union, which has described it as a "significant advance" in terms of Human Rights and has emphasized that it constitutes a "powerful example" for the rest of the states in the Middle East, being the first in the region to abolish the death penalty for all crimes.