Kuwait hangs a member of its royal family

Prince among seven prisoners killed in a mass execution in the Gulf State

Filipinos gather with signs and candles to remember a Filipino national who was executed in Kuwait,  in Quezon City, east of Manila. Photograph: Rolex Dela Pena/EPA
Filipinos gather with signs and candles to remember a Filipino national who was executed in Kuwait, in Quezon City, east of Manila. Photograph: Rolex Dela Pena/EPA

Kuwait has hanged seven prisoners, including a royal family member and a woman convicted of killing more than 40 people, in a mass execution.

The hangings are the first death penalties carried out in several years in the oil-rich Gulf State.

Those executed included a Bangladeshi, a Filipina, an Ethiopian, two Kuwaitis and two Egyptians, according to a statement carried on the state-run Kuna news agency.

The royal was identified as Prince Faisal Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

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He had been convicted of premeditated murder and illegal possession of a firearm, the statement said.

The second Kuwaiti national executed on Wednesday was Nasra al-Enezi.

She was convicted of charges including premeditated murder and sentenced to death in 2010.

She was accused of setting fire to a wedding tent the previous year after her husband took a second wife.

The blaze killed more than 40 women and children inside the tent.

In the Philippines, department of foreign affairs spokesman Charles Jose identified the Filipina as Jakatia Pawa, who was convicted of killing her employer's daughter.

The last known executions to be carried out in Kuwait were in 2013, when a Pakistani, a Saudi and a “Bidoon” - a name used in the Emirates for people without citizenship - were hung.

AP