Kuwait executes 7 people, first since 2017

KUWAIT—Kuwait put seven people to death for murder on Wednesday, the public prosecutions service said, as the first executions since 2017 went ahead despite appeals from a prominent rights group. One Ethiopian woman and one Kuwaiti woman were among those hanged, along with three Kuwaiti men, a Syrian and a Pakistani, a statement said. The executions are the first since Jan. 25, 2017, when the oil-rich Gulf country also hanged a group of seven people, including one member of the royal family. They come only days after Saudi Arabia said it had executed two Pakistani nationals for smuggling heroin, ending a nearly three-year hiatus in executions for drug crimes. In a statement late on Tuesday, Amnesty International urged a halt to the executions, calling them “the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.”