Kuwaiti court jails nine over deadly labour housing fire, one of the worst in history

Dubai: A Kuwaiti criminal court has sentenced three individuals to three years in prison with hard labour for involuntary manslaughter following a devastating fire last year that killed nearly 50 expat workers in a residential building housing labourers.

According to Al Rai, a local Kuwaiti newspaper, the Court of Misdemeanors handed down its ruling, convicting the defendants for their role in one of the deadliest labour housing incidents in the country’s recent history.

The court also sentenced two defendants to one year in prison for perjury, and four others to one year with hard labour for harboring a person wanted by authorities.

The identities and nationalities of the nine convicted individuals have not been publicly disclosed, though the majority are reported to be foreign nationals.

The June 2023 fire tore through a seven-story building in Kuwait’s Mangaf area, which was home to approximately 200 workers, most of them migrants.

The blaze broke out in the early hours of the morning and is believed to have been caused by an electrical short circuit, which later ignited gas cylinders stored on the lower floor, accelerating the spread of the flames.

The tragedy resulted in the deaths of 49 workers though some media reports place the death toll at 50  and left dozens more injured. Most of the victims were reportedly from India and other South Asian countries.

 -- Huda Ata is an independent writer based in the UAE