The first executions to take place under Emile Lahoud’s presidency were carried out at Roumieh Prison on 17 January, with the hanging of Ahmad Mansour and death by firing squad of Badih Walid Hamadeh and Remi Antoine Zaatar.

Mansour was convicted in 2002 for killing eight employees of the Private School Teachers’ Pension Fund. Hamadeh was convicted by military tribunal for the murder of three military intelligence officers in Saida the same year. Zaatar, who was also convicted by military tribunal, was executed for the armed robbery and murder of two Civil Defense officials. His execution had been put on hold since the Hoss administration.

The executions have re-ignited the debate on capital punishment in Lebanon, whose government has carried out fifty death penalty sentences since 1947, 14 of which were under the Hrawi administration. See Table 1 on the following page for death sentences carried out since 1994.

Pressure from the European Union, which has ties with Lebanon through the Euro-Med Agreement and which advocates abolition of the death penalty as part of that agreement, as well as appeals by human rights groups to reverse the decision, did not stop implementation of the decrees mandating the executions. The decrees were signed by President Lahoud, subsequent to the approval of Prime Minister Hariri and Justice Minister Bahij Tabbara. ...Full Story