Kuwait’s Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of a woman charged for setting on fire a tent that killed 57 women and children in 2009, reported Agence-France Presse.
Nasra Yussef Mohammed Al Enzi will become the first local woman to be executed in Kuwait by hanging, the only form of capital punishment in the kingdom, unless her sentence is commuted to life by the emir.
Ms. Al Enzi was arrested a day after the fire and initially confessed to the crime out of anger directed at her husband for taking a new wife and her sisters-in-law for “destroying her life,” according to newspaper reports of that time. She said her intention was to ruin the party and not kill.
However, she later denied the charges, saying she was home and mentally disturbed at the time she made the earlier confession.
A witness said she saw Ms. Al Enzi flee the scene of the crime seconds before the women-only tent was engulfed in flames. There was only one exit to the tent so a stampede occurred. Police said that 41 women and children died within minutes while the remaining 16 died from injuries.
The incident shocked Kuwaitis and led the emir to ask for austere Eid celebrations that year.
Ms Al Anzi, who is 24, has two mentally handicapped children.
She will be the 73rd person to be executed since Kuwait introduced the death penalty over 40 years ago. The last person executed was in mid-2007 reports AFP.
By Muna Khan
