Bahrain Mirror: Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Friday (January 27, 2017), that Kuwait carried out seven executions by hanging on January 25, 2017, the first time the Gulf state carried out the death penalty in four years. Kuwait's decision reflects a growing trend in the region to increase the use of, or lift moratoriums on, the death penalty.

Kuwait executed two nationals, including a member of the royal family, an Ethiopian woman, a Filipina woman, two Egyptian men, and a Bangladeshi man in Kuwait's central prison, according to KUNA, Kuwait's state news agency. The executions were the first in Kuwait since 2013, when Kuwait executed five people. The 2013 executions ended a de facto death penalty moratorium that had been in place since 2007. 

"Executing seven people in one day shows Kuwait is moving in exactly the wrong direction on the death penalty," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "The Kuwaiti government should be reinstating the moratorium on the death penalty instead of hanging seven people."

Human Rights Watch has documented due process violations in Kuwait's criminal justice system that have made it difficult for defendants to get a fair trial, including in capital cases. Kuwait maintains the death penalty for non-violent offenses, including drug smuggling.

In the regional trend to increasing use of the death penalty, in January, 2017, Bahrain ended a six-year de facto moratorium on the death penalty, executing three people. In December 2014, Jordan ended its eight-year moratorium on the death penalty, executing 11 people, HRW added.

HRW stressed that it opposes capital punishment in all countries and under all circumstances. Capital punishment is unique in its cruelty and finality, and it is inevitably and universally plagued with arbitrariness, prejudice, and error. A majority of countries in the world have abolished the practice.

"Kuwait's killing of seven people on January 25 highlights the alarming trend in the region for countries to return to or increasingly use the death penalty," Whitson said. "The death penalty is inherently cruel and should never be used, regardless of the crime."

Arabic Version