Kuwait Mass Execution: 7 Prisoners Including A Royal Family Member And Woman Who Killed More Than 40 Hung To Death

Kuwait carried out a mass execution Wednesday of seven prisoners in the Central Prison that included two Kuwaitis — a member of the royal family and a woman who was convicted of killing more than 40 people.

The other five individuals were an Ethiopian convicted of murder, a Bangladeshi convicted of kidnapping, rape and theft, a Philippine woman convicted of premeditated murder and two Egyptians convicted of murder, according to the Associated Press and Gulf News, which cited the state-run Kuwait news agency.

The Kuwaiti convicts were reportedly allowed final visits by relatives on Tuesday and the other foreign nationals were allowed visits from the representatives of their diplomatic missions.

Nasra al-Enezi, who was sentenced to death in 2010, has been identified as the Kuwaiti woman convicted of killing 57 women and children. Enezi reportedly set fire to a wedding tent, killing the people inside as revenge, after her husband took another wife.

The member of the royal family has been identified as 52-year-old Faisal Abdullah Al Jaber Al Sabah, who was convicted of premeditated murder and illegal possession of a firearm and sentenced to death in October 2011 (later upheld in 2013) after the court found him guilty of the murder of his nephew Shaikh Basil Salem Sabah Al Salem Al Sabah, according to Gulf News.

Faisal, a captain in the Kuwaiti army, killed Basil at the Maseelah palace in June 2010 after firing upon him at close range, having pulled him away from the main hall on the pretext of a private conversation. As Basil did not hold an official position with the government, authorities ruled out any possible political motivations behind the murder.

Basil was the grandson of Shaikh Sabah Al Salem Al Sabah, Kuwait’s 12th emir who ruled from Nov. 24, 1965, until Dec. 31, 1977. He was also the eldest son of Shaikh Salem Sabah Al Salem Al Sabah who held multiple portfolios of social affairs and labor, interior, defense and foreign affairs and had also been Kuwait’s ambassador to the United States, Canada and Venezuela from 1970 until 1975.

Convicted in 2008, Jakatia Pawa, a Philippine woman identified as the killer of her employer’s daughter, was reportedly allowed to call her brother Air Force Lt. Col. Gary Pawa early Wednesday morning. Sobbing, Pawa informed her brother of her impending execution and asked him to take care of her children.

"All efforts to preserve her life, including diplomatic means and appeals for compassion," were employed by the authorities, according to Ernesto Abella, a spokesman for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

"Execution, however, could no longer be forestalled under Kuwaiti laws. ... We pray for her and her bereaved family," he added.

The last time executions were carried out in Kuwait was in 2013, according to the AP.