Kuwait carries out first execution in five years, Seven people hanged

Kuwait City: Seven people were put to death by Kuwait authorities on Wednesday. The executions are the first since January 25, 2017.

The public prosecutions service said seven people were sentenced to be hanged to death for murder. Among them are one Ethiopian woman, one Kuwaiti woman, three Kuwaiti men, a Syrian man, and a Pakistani man, reported AFP.

A prominent rights group Amnesty International had appealed against the execution. On Tuesday, the organisation urged the Kuwait government to halt the executions and called it "the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment." Amnesty's deputy regional director Amna Guellali said in a statement Kuwaiti "authorities must immediately establish an official moratorium on executions."

"While the Kuwaiti authorities have a duty to bring those responsible for serious crimes to justice, suspects must be tried in accordance with international law in trials that meet Kuwait's international human rights obligations. The authorities must immediately establish an official moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty entirely," added Guellali.

Kuwait introduced the death penalty in the mid-1960s and executed dozens of people since then. Most of them are murderers or drug traffickers.

The Gulf region is known to practice capital punishment more than other countries. Saudi Arabia recently executed two Pakistani nationals for smuggling heroin after not executing anyone for drug crimes for nearly three years. In March, the Kingdom put 81 people to death in a single day. International society condemned the act.