Death upheld for Kuwait woman for wedding carnage
KUWAIT CITY (AFP) – Kuwait's supreme court on Sunday upheld a woman's death sentence for setting ablaze her husband's wedding tent, killing 57 women and children.
Nasra Yussef Mohammed al-Enezi, 24, was condemned to death by a lower and appeals courts for the apparent act of revenge against her husband for taking a second wife.
Under Islamic laws, men in Kuwait can take up to four wives at a time.
The ruling against Enezi is final unless the emir commutes the sentence to a life term. Death sentences in the oil-rich Gulf state are carried out by hanging.
Enezi, who has two mentally-ill children from her husband, denied the charges throughout the trial and her defence lawyers argued there was no material evidence to convict her.
The August 15, 2009 inferno engulfed the women-and-children-only tent in minutes and triggered a stampede. The final death toll was 57, including Saudis and stateless Arabs.
If Enezi is hanged, she would be the first Kuwaiti woman to be executed in the Gulf state's history. Three foreign women have been hanged.
Kuwait has executed a total of 72 people since it introduced the death penalty some four decades ago. Most of those condemned have been convicted murderers or drug traffickers.
The last execution in the emirate dates back to mid-2007 although dozens of convicts are on death row.
