Kuwait's Execution of Prince and Six Others Part of 'Alarming Trend' in Middle East

WorldNewsweek

Jack Moore,Newsweek 15 hours ago

Kuwait’s hanging of seven people this week, including a member of the royal family, is part of an “alarming trend” across the region, Human Rights Watch said Thursday. “Executing seven people in one day shows Kuwait is moving in exactly the wrong direction on the death penalty,” Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW's Middle East director, said in a statement. Wednesday’s executions were the first since 2013, when Kuwaiti authorities executed five people after a six-year moratorium. Two Kuwaitis were hanged along with five foreign nationals: two Egyptians, one Bangladeshi, one Filipino and one Ethiopian. All were convicted of murder, bar the Bangladeshi man, who was convicted of rape and kidnapping. “The Kuwait ...

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 A Saudi man smokes his last cigarette before being hanged for murder just west of the capital Kuwait City, on April 1, 2013. Kuwait hanged seven people this week, the first since 2013, highlighting an "alarming trend" in the region, Human Rights Watch said. Yasser Al-Zayyat/AFP/Getty