The final version of Lebanon's amnesty law contains material changes from the parliamentary committees' draft, narrowing exemptions for financial crimes and tightening conditions for sentence reduction.
A final version of Lebanon's general amnesty law has been disclosed, revealing substantial revisions to key provisions from the draft approved by joint parliamentary committees. The changes affect the scope of amnesty, excluded crimes, financial and banking offences, narcotics, conditions for sentence reduction, detention periods, and consequences for beneficiaries who commit new crimes.
The opening article of the law originally provided that amnesty would erase primary sentences, secondary penalties, and preventive measures. The final text removes references to secondary penalties and preventive measures, limiting erasure to primary sentences alone. It also adds provisions covering prosecutions, convictions, and administrative decisions against officials, while excepting those charged with financial corruption.
The second article, which lists crimes excluded from amnesty, underwent the most extensive revisions. In narcotics cases, the language shifted from a blanket exemption of repeat drug felonies to excluding only repeat offences beyond the second occurrence, whether or not convictions were issued. All drug crimes by military and security personnel remain excluded, while the final version explicitly includes cultivation of controlled substances in the amnesty if committed before the law's enactment.
Financial and banking crimes received clearer definition. Where the committees' draft referred broadly to anti-corruption legislation, the final text specifically exempts counterfeiting and trafficking in Lebanese and foreign currency, damage to the state's financial standing, fraudulent bankruptcy, crimes under banking and lending laws, and related regulations. Illicit enrichment provisions were rewritten to cover embezzlement, breach of trust, and theft of public funds or money belonging to financial institutions, as well as tax evasion.
The final law maintains exclusions for money laundering and terrorism financing offences and violations of banking and lending law, particularly those involving depositors' funds and banking crimes of all types. Article three preserves the reduction of capital punishment to 28 years imprisonment and life labour to 17 years, with all other sentences reduced by one third. The essential change lies in the condition for waiving civil liability.
Instead of linking sentence reduction to waiver of civil liability whenever the injured party initiated private prosecution, the final version restricts this condition to intentional homicide accompanied by aggravating circumstances including rape or sexual assault, torture or cruelty, disfigurement or kidnapping, crimes committed by ascendants or descendants, or those with authority or guardianship over the victim, and political assassination. In these cases, a convicted person cannot benefit from sentence reduction if the injured party initiated private prosecution before 1 March 2026 unless civil liability is waived.
Article four retains rules on civil rights and compensation but replaces detailed references to specific legal articles with general language referring to criminal procedure and penal law. The committees' draft tied the release of an accused person with no conviction to detention exceeding 14 years, while the final text reduces this threshold to 12 years, with mandatory release and trial continuing according to legal procedures.
Article six introduces a fundamental distinction in handling beneficiaries who commit new crimes. If a beneficiary commits a misdemeanour after the law's enactment, punishment for the new offence is enhanced under Article 257 of the penal code. If a beneficiary commits a felony, amnesty is forfeited and the original sentence or trial resumes from its prior stage, alongside prosecution for the new crime. The five-year grace period in the committees' draft no longer appears in the final text.
Articles seven through eleven contain no substantial changes. Non-Lebanese beneficiaries remain subject to deportation by the General Security Directorate, and confiscated fees, deposits, fines, and property are not returned. Individuals who complete their sentence but remain imprisoned due to unpaid fines are exempted from those fines, and Article 205 of the penal code is amended. The law takes effect upon publication in the official gazette.
The revisions concentrate on specified articles but carry direct consequences for amnesty beneficiaries and excluded crimes, particularly in financial, banking, and narcotics matters. The detention ceiling drops from 14 to 12 years, and penalties are enhanced for those granted amnesty who subsequently commit felonies. These changes significantly narrow the scope of financial crimes eligible for amnesty while maintaining strict exclusions for banking and money laundering offences.
