Lebanon's sweeping amnesty law: What we know
Lebanon's parliament on Wednesday passed an amnesty law, the first of its kind since 1991, that is expected to benefit thousands of prisoners and wanted people.
The legislation is largely aimed at easing prison overcrowding but critics say it is the result of bargaining among sectarian groups and perpetuates a culture of impunity.
Parliament has not yet published the final text of the law, but here is what we know so far:
- Why now? -
For years, Lebanon's parliament had been trying to pass the bill as a way to reduce overcrowding in prisons, which has been exacerbated by slow-moving trials and the detention of suspects for years without judicial proceedings.
In a report last year, the country's National Human Rights Commission said the prison population had reached 300 percent of capacity, with more than 6,200 inmates by the end of March.
However, the law was also helped across the finish line by political and sectarian motives, with the country's diverse factions all vying for the release of their own.
It was brought back into the spotlight after the fall in 2024 of longtime president Bashar al-Assad in neighboring Syria, because many Islamists imprisoned in Lebanon were jailed over events linked to the Syrian civil war.
Most of these inmates hail from northern Lebanon's Sunni-majority city of Tripoli and were accused of crimes including attacking the Lebanese Army, participating in clashes and planning bombings.
But other political or religious groups, including Iran-backed Hezbollah, had also been demanding amnesty for their allies.
Hezbollah has called for the inclusion of thousands of detainees held over drug-related offenses or car theft in the eastern Baalbek and Hermel districts.
Christian parties meanwhile have pushed for the law to include the families of those who joined an Israeli-backed proxy and fled to Israel after its withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000.
Many of these people feared reprisals in Lebanon after fleeing, particularly from Hezbollah and its supporters.
So far however, Lebanese authorities have not announced the names of those who will benefit from the amnesty.
- Who does the law include? -
According to Nizar Saghieh, executive director of the non-governmental group Legal Agenda, the legislation allows "for each political group to take its share of the cake".
Parliament has not yet released the final version, but based on the bill that was voted on and statements by lawmakers after its passage, the law contains a broad amnesty for crimes committed before March this year, with some exceptions.
"Amnesty has become the principle and accountability the exception," Saghieh told AFP, warning that vagueness on crimes exempted could lead to legal disputes.
Murder and "acts of terrorism" against civilians, soldiers, and Lebanon's security forces will not be pardoned, but may be subject to reduced sentences, which experts and lawmakers say could benefit Islamists.
According to Imad al-Hout, one of the lawmakers in favor of the bill, the legislation reduces sentences for those facing the death penalty and life imprisonment to 17 "prison years".
This is equivalent to 12 years and nine months of actual imprisonment in Lebanon, where a "prison year" is generally nine months.
Hout also said 79 Islamist detainees or convicts out of 146 were supposed to be released immediately under the law.
In addition, the legislation stipulates the release of inmates who have been detained for more than 12 prison years if the courts have not yet reached a verdict on their culpability.
But it excludes "crimes of treason, espionage, and illicit ties with" Israel, though Saghieh said it should benefit the families of people accused of being Israeli "agents".
The law also excludes crimes against public funds, corruption in the public sector and illicit enrichment, along with several financial and banking-related offenses.
- Social cohesion or impunity? -
Although the passage of the law was the result of a "temporary political consensus", Saghieh said it does not build genuine social cohesion.
Many contentious issues in Lebanon are managed through compromises between religious and political forces, leading to a culture of impunity.
For Saghieh, the problem is an absence of a path towards national reconciliation or a broader vision or justification for the pardons.
"All that is happening is a kind of compromise and bargaining, without a real narrative. The amnesty comes without any real reconciliation, without any work to amend and reform the laws, and without a general vision of what should be pardoned and what shouldn't," he said.
The law embodies "the application of the idea of power-sharing" among Lebanon's factions, Saghieh added.
However, legislator Bilal Abdallah, a supporter of the bill, insisted the law was "national and humanitarian" before being "sectarian".
"Today we open a new door to reconciliation and justice, and we affirm that healing national wounds requires law, justice and the state," added fellow lawmaker Hout.
Source: Agence France Presse
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