Lebanon’s general amnesty law remains suspended by the Constitutional Council, which ruled by majority on September 10 to freeze the effects of the contested text until a final verdict expected by early October, after an appeal by the Strong Lebanon bloc of MP Gebran Bassil, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) and The New York Times.

The suspension blocks the release of detainees who would have benefited, and prisoners protested the decision, some of them launching a hunger strike, according to The New York Times. The law, passed by parliament on August 12, 2026, and signed by President Joseph Aoun, is the first general amnesty since 1991: it commutes death sentences to life imprisonment, cuts life terms to 17 “prison years” — each counted as nine months — and orders the release of anyone held for more than 12 years without trial, according to AFP and New Arab. The most cited case is that of Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir, sentenced to death over the 2013 Abra clashes in which 18 Lebanese Army soldiers were killed. Bassil argues the text pardons perpetrators of murder, rape and attacks against the army and wants it narrowed to Islamists held without trial; Prime Minister Nawaf Salam is the amnesty’s main backer.