Kuwait executes seven prisoners including prince

BBC – Kuwait has executed seven prisoners for the first time since 2013, including a member of the ruling royal family.

They were hanged at the central prison, according to a statement carried by state news agency Kuna.

The royal family member was named as Faisal Abudallah Al Jaber Al Sabah, who was convicted of premeditated murder and illegal possession of a firearm.

The other executed prisoners included nationals from the Philippines, Egypt, Ethiopia and Bangladesh.

They were convicted of a variety of capital offences including murder, attempted murder, kidnapping and rape.

Al Sabah was found guilty of killing another Kuwaiti prince in 2010.

The BBC’s Middle East editor, Sebastian Usher, said it was very rare, but not unknown, for members of the various royal families in Gulf states to be imprisoned or executed.

Such cases are given as proof that no-one is above the law, he added.

Among the executed prisoners was Nusra al-Enezi, a Kuwait national, who was convicted of setting fire to a tent during a wedding party for her husband, who was marrying a second wife.

The blaze killed more than 50 people.

Among the others executed, two were domestic workers, one Filipina and one Ethiopian, convicted of murdering members of their employers’ families.