Lebanon executed three of its citizens on Saturday after turning down pleas from international human-rights organizations, according to news reports.
The three, Ahmad ‘Ali Mansour, Badi’ Walid Hamada and Rami Antuan Za’atar were executed Saturday morning in Roumieh prison in Beirut.
Two of them were shot by a firing squad. The third was hanged. All three were charged with and convicted of murder.
The executions were preceded by appeals to halt the capital punishment from international organizations, including Amnesty International.
These were the first prisoners to face the death penalty in Lebanon since President Emil Lahoud came to power in 1998, the Arabic news portal Al-Bawaba reported.
The execution coincides with a campaign recently launched by the European Union to stop the death penalty worldwide.
Officials from the French Foreign Ministry condemned the act and said the execution contravenes the spirit of the cooperation between Lebanon and the European Union. “However hideous the crimes these criminals committed, executions are damaging to the honor of humanity,” the London-based Al-Hayyat quoted an official French spokesman.