Manama: A court in Kuwait has sentenced a Kuwaiti to death for killing one police officer and wounding five others.
The crime occurred in February 2016 as the country was celebrating its National Day.
Reports said that the driver was involved in a hit and run accident after he drove into a security check-point and tried to escape.
As officers chased him, he took out a knife he had concealed under his clothes and stabbed one of them killing him. He was eventually subdued and arrested.
The police said the dead police officer was Turki Mohammad Al Enzi and that the murderer, Abdul Aziz Al Shamlan, was 22 years old.
The court said the death verdict was based on the police reports, the confessions of the defendant and on the medical report.
The murderer’s father said at the time that no sensible person would target police officers and explained that his son had mental problems.
“My son has an incident previously and was admitted to a local hospital three months ago,” he was quoted as saying. “We do not in any way condone what happened to the police officers who are protecting Kuwait and its security.”
News of the murder shocked Kuwait, especially that the nation was in a festive mood and recovering from the suicide bombing inside a mosque in June 2015 that killed 27 people and injured 227.
