Amnesty, death penalty: Parliament adjourns in another failure after Lebanese Forces withdraw

After two days of debate, Thursday’s plenary session was adjourned without lawmakers voting on the key bills on general amnesty and the abolition of the death penalty. Although the withdrawal of MPs from the Lebanese Forces parliamentary bloc caused the loss of quorum, it had become clear throughout the day that the conditions for adopting the two bills had not been met. This was reflected in the boycott of the session by around 10 Sunni MPs, despite their being among the strongest supporters of the general amnesty bill.Fady Karam, an LF MP for Koura, told L’Orient-Le Jour that his bloc’s withdrawal prompted Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to adjourn the session indefinitely.“We had requested that the bill abolishing the death penalty be voted on after the amnesty bill, but Nabih Berri, backed by Hezbollah, rejected that request,” he...