Kuwait hangs seven people
Member of ruling family was one of those executed
KUWAIT CITY // Kuwait yesterday hanged seven people, including a member of the ruling family and a woman who burnt dozens of people to death at a wedding party.
Authorities said they were two Kuwaitis, two Egyptians and one each from Bangladesh, the Philippines and Ethiopia.
State news agency Kuna said all had been convicted of murder except the Bangladeshi man, who was convicted of rape, kidnapping and theft. They were the first executions in Kuwait since mid-2013.
The ruler, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, authorised the executions, which were carried out at Kuwait’s central prison.
The royal was identified as Faisal Abdullah Al Jaber Al Sabah, who killed his nephew Basil Al Sabah in 2010 over a dispute.
Al Sabah’s crime was “premeditated murder and possession of a firearm and ammunition without a licence,” Kuna said.
Another Kuwaiti, Nusra Al Enezi, set fire to a tent in 2009 during a wedding party in an apparent act of revenge against her husband for taking a second wife.
Many of the 57 people killed were women and children.
Enezi, who was 23 at the time, threw petrol on the tent where people were celebrating, and burnt it down in one of the most devastating crimes in the history of Kuwait.
The Filipina and the Ethiopian woman were domestic helpers convicted of murdering members of their employers’ fami- lies in two unrelated crimes. Philippines presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said the government had done everything it could to save Pawa.
Manila “exerted all efforts to preserve her life, including diplomatic means and appeals for compassion. “But execution could no longer be forestalled under Kuwaiti laws. We pray for her and her bereaved family”, Mr Abella said.
About 240,000 Filipinos are working and living in Kuwait, some of them domestic helpers.
The two Egyptians were convicted of premeditated murder while the Bangladeshi was convicted of abduction and rape.
Kuwait resumed executions in 2013 after a moratorium of six years.