KUWAIT CITY: A court on Tuesday sentenced a Kuwaiti woman to death for starting a fire that killed 57 women and children at the wedding party of her husband who married another wife.
Judge Adel Al-Sager read out the verdict against Nasra Yussef Mohammed Al-Enezi, 23, at the court of first instance. The sentence will have to be upheld by the appeals court.
The woman was found guilty of "premeditated murder and starting a fire with the intent to kill."
The August 15 inferno engulfed the women-and-children-only tent in minutes and triggered a stampede.
At her first hearing in October, she denied the charges.
Her defence lawyers alleged at the time that Enezi was two months pregnant when arrested and "deliberately aborted" by a prison guard with the help of an Asian nurse.
Enezi was arrested on August 16, a day after 41 women and children died in the fire inside the wedding tent in Jahra, west of Kuwait City. The death toll later rose to 57.
She was initially believed to be the groom’s ex-wife but defense lawyers said she was still his wife, as men are allowed to have more than one wife in this Muslim state.
Enezi and the man have two children, both of whom are mentally handicapped.
