{"id":86662,"date":"2017-01-25T17:41:23","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T22:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=86662"},"modified":"2017-01-25T17:41:23","modified_gmt":"2017-01-25T22:41:23","slug":"kuwait-hangs-7-prisoners-including-royal-in-mass-execution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/01\/25\/kuwait-hangs-7-prisoners-including-royal-in-mass-execution\/","title":{"rendered":"Kuwait hangs 7 prisoners, including royal, in mass execution"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kuwait<\/a>
Kuwait (Pictured) hanged seven prisoners in a mass execution on Wednesday, including a royal family member and a woman convicted of killing 58 women and children when she set fire to a wedding tent \u2013the first death sentences carried out in several years in the oil-rich emirate. (Photo: xiquinhosilva\/ Flickr<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

KUWAIT CITY \u2013Kuwait hanged seven prisoners in a mass execution on Wednesday, including a royal family member and a woman convicted of killing 58 women and children when she set fire to a wedding tent \u2013the first death sentences carried out in several years in the oil-rich emirate.<\/p>\n

Those executed included a Bangladeshi, a Filipina, an Ethiopian, two Kuwaitis and two Egyptians, according to a statement carried on the state-run KUNA news agency.<\/p>\n

KUNA said that all had been convicted of murder except the Bangladeshi man, who was convicted of rape, kidnapping and theft.<\/p>\n

Kuwait’s ruler, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, authorized the executions, which were carried out in the morning in the country’s central prison.<\/p>\n

The royal was identified as Faisal Abdullah Al Jaber Al Sabah, who killed his nephew Basil Al Sabah in 2010.<\/p>\n

Executions of royals in Gulf Arab countries are rare but do happen. In October, Saudi Arabia executed a prince who fatally shot another man in a melee.<\/p>\n

The second Kuwaiti national executed on Wednesday was Nasra al-Enezi. She was convicted of setting fire to a wedding tent in 2009 after her husband took a second wife.<\/p>\n

The blaze killed 58 women and children, her lawyer Zaid al-Khabbaz said. The Bedouin-style tent, put up so women attending could be uncovered for the event, had only one entrance. Dozens of others were injured in a stampede during the fire, which later led Kuwait to ban the tents.<\/p>\n

The lawyer said he last spoke to his client a month ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe sounded very fragile, very shaken, more than any other time,\u201d al-Khabbaz told The Associated Press. \u201cIt’s impossible to say that she intended to kill all those women and children. … It was a tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Philippines, Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose identified the Filipina hanged as Jakatia Pawa, who was convicted of killing her employer’s daughter.<\/p>\n

Pawa’s brother, Air Force Lt. Col. Gary Pawa, said his sister called early morning Wednesday, crying as she informed him of her scheduled execution.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy sister’s only request was for us to take care of her two children,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ernesto Abella, a spokesman for Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, said in a statement that the authorities used \u201call efforts to preserve her life, including diplomatic means and appeals for compassion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cExecution, however, could no longer be forestalled under Kuwaiti laws,\u201d he said. \u201cWe pray for her and her bereaved family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kuwait is home to 250,000 Filipino workers, with about 158,000 of them working as domestic helpers, Philippine ambassador to Kuwait Rene Villa said.<\/p>\n

Executions are fairly rare in Kuwait, which has the world’s sixth-largest oil reserves. The last were carried out in 2013, when a Pakistani, a Saudi and a \u201cBidoon\u201d \u2013a name used in the emirate for people without citizenship \u2013were hung.<\/p>\n

Wednesday’s executions drew immediate criticism from Amnesty International, which opposes the death penalty.<\/p>\n

The mass execution \u201cis a shocking and deeply regrettable step backward for Kuwait,\u201d Amnesty official Samah Hadid said in a statement. \u201cBy choosing to resume executions now, the Kuwaiti authorities have displayed a wanton disregard for the right to life and signalled a willingness to weaken human rights standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

It’s not clear what sparked the timing of the executions. However, it comes 10 days after Bahrain announced it put three men to death in its first executions since 2010.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KUWAIT CITY \u2013Kuwait hanged seven prisoners in a mass execution on Wednesday, including a royal family member and a woman …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":86663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[1443,4326],"class_list":["post-86662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","tag-execution","tag-kuwait","mauthors-hussain-al-qatari","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}