Kuwait court upholds death sentence for wedding tent arsonist
Court confirms death sentence for woman who set fire to wedding tent in Kuwait
Manama: The lawyer of the Kuwaiti woman who allegedly killed 57 women and children in a tent fire said that he would take her case to the Cassation Court to overrule the death sentence verdict confirmed against her on Wednesday.
Zaid Al Khabbaz made the pledge after the Court of Appeals confirmed the death sentence against Nasra Al Enezi, 23, pronounced by a lower court in March on charges of "premeditated murder and starting a fire with the intent to kill."
The defendant had denied the charges and her lawyer has consistently urged the court to dismiss her initial confessions and to take into consideration clashes in the witnesses' testimonies.
Nasra who was arrested one day after the August 15 tragedy, the worst on Kuwait's modern peace time history, initially admitted that she started the fire in revenge against her husband for taking a second wife and against her sisters-in-law for "ruining her married life."
She said that she took a taxi and bought petrol in a bottle before heading to the tent in Al Jahra, north west of Kuwait City, where women and children were waiting for the bride.
In pure Gulf conservative traditions, women and men do not mix at wedding ceremonies. Wedding parties usually consist of singing and dancing to Arabic music and of a catered buffet dinner.
In her confessions, the defendant said that she just wanted to spoil the celebrations and never planned to kill anyone. The fire engulfed the 200-seat tent in three minutes and caused a deadly stampede as the guests struggled to flee through a single exit.
According to the latest toll, 57 women and children from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia perished in the fire.
However, Nasra later retracted her confessions and said that she was coerced into making them. She insisted that she was innocent and that she was at home when the fire broke out.
The case of Nasra, who has two children, has shocked Kuwait, but most Kuwaitis reportedly say that she should be executed for the several deaths she had allegedly caused because of her jealousy.
No Kuwaiti woman has ever been hanged or faced the firing squad.
