Lebanon is set to resume executions after a five-year hiatus today despite the objections of human rights groups and the European Union, which called on Lebanon to abolish the death penalty.
Three convicted killers are scheduled to be put to death at dawn in the courtyard of Beirut's Roumieh prison, two by firing squad and one by hanging.
"It is going to happen, definitely, at 5 a.m. tomorrow," a judicial source told reporters.
If the executions go ahead, they will be the first since President Emile Lahoud came to office in late 1998.
Amnesty International said in a statement: "Beams of hope lit by a de facto five-year moratorium on the death penalty have been dimmed by Lebanon's decision to kill these men."
Amnesty said death sentences had also been passed against 24 others, although Lebanese government sources said six of those had their sentences commuted to life in prison with hard labour.
"Lebanese authorities should build on the moratorium and move towards the abolition of the death penalty," the European Union said in a statement.
Dozens of Lebanese activists marched on the parliament building in downtown Beirut, where they sprawled on the ground and waved black flags to protest against the death penalty.
"No to executions," one banner read.
Dismissing the criticism, a Lebanese government source said: "These people took the lives of others, and so the judgment and the people's ruling is that their lives should be taken."