A final cigarette... then the hangman's noose: Three men put to death in Kuwaiti car park in country's first execution in six years

 

Blindfolded, his hands bound, a condemned prisoner puffs desperately on a final cigarette.

Just a few minutes later he and two others are led up a short flight of stairs, nooses are placed around their necks before a trapdoor opens beneath their feet. This is justice Kuwait-style.

The Gulf-Arab state hanged three convicted murderers today, the first executions to take place there since 2007, state news agency KUNA reported.

Kuwait, which has a population of around three and a half million people, operates a judicial system which is a mixture of Islamic Sharia law, English common law, and the Ottoman civil code.

The state carried out 72 executions (69 men and three women) between April 1964 and May 2007.

Crimes that carry the death sentence include drug trafficking, murder and treason. Sentences are not carried out publically however members of the media act as witnesses and pictures are published in the hope it will act as a deterrent

KUNA said 48 people remain on death row in Kuwait.

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