Kuwait hangs 7 prisoners, including royal, in mass execution

KUWAIT CITY (AP) – Kuwait hanged seven prisoners, including a royal family member and a woman convicted of killing more than 40 people, in a mass execution on Wednesday, the first death sentences carried out in several years in the oil-rich emirate.

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.

The royal was identified as Faisal Abdullah Al Jaber Al Sabah. The statement said he was convicted of premediated murder and illegal possession of a firearm.

The second Kuwaiti national executed on Wednesday was Nasra al-Enezi. She was convicted of charges including premeditated murder and sentenced to death in 2010. She was accused of setting fire to a wedding tent the previous year after her husband took a second wife. The blaze killed more than 40 women and children inside.

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.

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. She asked him to take care of her two children.

Ernesto Abella, a spokesman for Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, said in a statement that the authorities used “all efforts to preserve her life, including diplomatic means and appeals for compassion.”

“Execution, however, could no longer be forestalled under Kuwaiti laws,” he said. “We pray for her and her bereaved family.”

The last known executions to be carried out in Kuwait were in 2013, when a Pakistani, a Saudi and a “Bidoon” – a name used in the emirate for people without citizenship – were hung.