Kuwait hangs royal, 6 others in mass execution

 Kuwait on Wednesday hanged seven people including a member of the ruling family and a woman who burned dozens of people to death at a wedding party, the authorities said.
Kuwait made the announcement on Wednesday in a statement on its state-run KUNA news agency.
They included two Kuwaitis, two Egyptians and one each from Bangladesh, the Philippines and Ethiopia, the statement by the public prosecution office said.
Sheikh Faisal Abdullah Al-Sabah, the first royal to be executed in the emirate, was convicted of shooting and killing his nephew — another member of the ruling family, in 2010 over a dispute — and illegal possession of a firearm.
Nusra Al-Enezi, the other Kuwaiti, 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 years old at the time, threw petrol on the tent, where people were celebrating inside, and burned it down in one of the most devastating crimes in the history of Kuwait.
Philippine officials earlier said a Filipino domestic helper convicted of killing her employer’s daughter has been executed in Kuwait despite last-ditch efforts to obtain clemency.
The Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose identified the Filipino hanged as Jakatia Pawa. Jose confirmed Pawa was hanged on Wednesday.
Pawa’s brother, Air Force Lt. Col. Gary Pawa, said his sister called early morning on Wednesday, crying as she informed him of her scheduled execution. She asked him to take care of her two children.
Philippines presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said the presidential palace was saddened by the execution of Pawa.
The Ethiopian woman, a domestic helper, was also convicted of murdering a member of her employers’ families.
Abella said the Philippine government had done everything it could to save Pawa, including legal assistance to ensure that her rights were respected and all legal procedures were followed.
Manila “exerted all efforts to preserve her life, including diplomatic means and appeals for compassion. Execution, however, could no longer be forestalled under Kuwaiti laws... We pray for her and her bereaved family,” he added.
Around 240,000 Filipinos are working and living in Kuwait, some of them domestic helpers.
The two Egyptians were also convicted of premeditated murder while the Bangladeshi was convicted of abduction and rape.
Kuwait resumed executions in 2013 after a moratorium of six years.
In April 2013, authorities hanged three men convicted of murder.
Two months later, two Egyptians, convicted of murder and abduction, were executed.
One of them, Hajaj Saadi was convicted of abducting and raping 17 children below the age of 10. He denied the charges in court.
Following those executions, human rights organizations strongly condemned the resumption of hangings in Kuwait.
Kuwait has executed 74 men and six women since it introduced the death penalty in the mid-1960. Most of those condemned have been convicted murderers or drug traffickers.
Around 50 prisoners are on death row.
Courts in Kuwait, which has an elected Parliament and an active political scene, have in the past handed down death sentences to members of the Al-Sabah that has ruled the country for two and a half centuries.
Officials with Kuwait’s Information and Interior Ministries did not immediately answer calls for comment.
The three women and four men are the first to be executed in the oil-rich Gulf state since mid-2013.
The last known executions to be carried out in Kuwait were in 2013, when a Pakistani, a Saudi and a “Bidoon” or man without citizenship in the emirate were hung.

Source : Arab News