DUBAI (AP) – Kuwait on Wednesday put to death seven prisoners in a rare mass execution in the small, oil-rich nation.
The state-run KUNA news agency described those executed as all being convicted of premeditated murder and other charges in the sheikhdom. It identified those killed as three Kuwaiti men, one Kuwaiti woman, a Syrian man, a Pakistani man and an Ethiopian woman.
Kuwait said the executions took place at its Central Prison. It did not identify the method it used to carry out the executions, though the sheikhdom typically hangs its condemned prisoners. However, it can use firing squads as well.
“They deprived the victims of their most sacred rights in this world, which is the right to life,” Kuwait’s public prosecution said in a statement.
Kuwait hadn’t held an execution since 2017, when it similarly carried out a mass execution of seven prisoners, including a ruling family member.
Executions are fairly rare in Kuwait, which has the world’s sixth-largest oil reserves. The last before 2017 were carried out in 2013, when a Pakistani, a Saudi and a “Bidoon” — a name used in the emirate for people without citizenship — were hung.