After Lebanon scraps death penalty, where does the region stand?
Lebanon has formally abolished the death penalty, going against the grain in a region where Iran and Saudi Arabia are reportedly the second- and third-biggest executors globally, after China.
Here's a look at which countries in the Middle East and North Africa top the list of executioners, which have a moratorium on applying the death penalty, and whether others might follow Lebanon's example.
- Top regional executioners? -
According to an Amnesty International report, of at least 2,707 people executed globally in 2025, more than 95 percent were in the Middle East and North Africa region, almost half for drug-related offences.
Amnesty said governments in the region use capital punishment "as a tool to repress dissent and crack down on actual or perceived national security threats, amid a resurgence of punitive drug policies".
Iran alone accounted for 2,159 of those executions -- Tehran's highest recorded figure in more than 40 years, according to Amnesty -- as authorities "intensified their use of the death penalty as a tool of political repression and control", particularly after a 2025 war with Israel.
This year too, rights groups say Iran has been stepping up executions after protests in January and during the latest war launched on it by Israel and the United States.
This week, more than 30 countries accused Iran of executing protesters to "silence dissent", criticism which Tehran brushed off.
Saudi Arabia carried out a record high of at least 356 executions last year, Amnesty said, "driven by an alarming increase in the number of drug-related cases", most of which involved foreign nationals.
This year, Saudi authorities had already executed 130 people by August 13, according to an AFP tally based on official announcements.
Authorities say the penalty is compatible with Sharia law -- the Islamic legal code based on the teachings of the Quran -- and necessary to "maintain public order".
Yemen was third regionally and fourth globally according to Amnesty, with at least 51 executions last year.
Egypt, with 23 executions, was sixth globally, trailing the United States.
- Which countries hold back? -
Tunisia has had a moratorium on carrying out the death penalty since 1991, and Algeria and Morocco since 1993.
In Iraq, which came fourth globally in 2024, Amnesty noted that executions were "largely on hold" last year, however thousands are still sentenced to death, many accused of belonging to the Islamic State group.
Jordan this year hanged six men convicted in "terrorism and criminal cases", ending a nine-year moratorium there.
Syria did not hand down any death sentences in 2025, the first full year under the new Islamist authorities, but this week sentenced ousted leader Bashar al-Assad and other top security officials to death in absentia.
The country regularly carried out executions under Assad's rule.
Israel has abolished capital punishment for "ordinary crimes" but retains it for some "exceptional" offences.
It last executed Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in 1962.
But in March, Israel passed a law making death the default punishment for Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank convicted by military courts of carrying out deadly attacks classified as "terrorism".
It also faced international scrutiny after passing a May law establishing a special tribunal to try those accused of taking part in Hamas' October 7, 2023 attacks, with authority to hand down the death penalty.
The Palestinian Authority has not carried out an execution since 2005, with president Mahmoud Abbas refusing to sign execution orders.
The authority has signed a number of international conventions that call for the abolition of capital punishment, without actually doing so itself. Death sentences are still handed down, but not implemented.
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has frequently put Palestinians to death, including last year through the public executions of alleged collaborators with Israel.
- Following Lebanon's lead? -
Aurelie Placais, director of the World Coalition against the Death Penalty, told AFP that Lebanon's move "sends a strong signal to the rest of the region".
Ogarit Younan, who co-founded Lebanon's national campaign for the abolition of the death penalty nearly 30 years ago, expressed hope that Lebanon could be a model in the region.
She said countries need a civil society movement ready for a long-term campaign on the issue, with small wins along the way.
In Lebanon, she told AFP, "we had a strategic vision and plan since the beginning, and then we did it step by step".
Source: Agence France Presse
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/321830 |