Kuwait executes five, including man convicted over ISIS mosque bombing

Abdulrahman Sabah Eidan Saud hanged over 2015 attack on Shiite place of worship

Mourners carry the body of one of the victims of the Imam Al Sadeq mosque bombing in 2015. AFP

Kuwait on Thursday executed five people, including a man convicted of involvement in a 2015 ISIS suicide bombing that killed 27.

The Public Prosecution said one Kuwaiti, two Bidoons, an Egyptian and a Sri Lankan were hanged.

One of the two members of the Bidoon stateless minority group to be executed was identified as Abdulrahman Sabah Eidan Saud. He was sentenced to death in 2015 on murder and terror charges for his involvement in the suicide bombing on the Imam Al Sadeq mosque in Kuwait City that killed at least 27 people and left more than 200 injured.

Saud was considered the primary influencer in the bombing of the Shiite mosque in the capital during Friday prayers. It was the bloodiest attack in Kuwait's history.

He was convicted of driving the bomber to the mosque and bringing the explosives belt he used from near the Saudi border.

At his initial trial, Saud pleaded guilty to most charges but in the appeals and supreme courts he denied them all.

Kuwait had initially charged 29 defendants, including seven women, with helping the Saudi mosque bomber.

In 2016, it upheld jail terms of between two and 15 years for eight people, including four women, and acquitted more than a dozen others.

Those convicted include alleged ISIS leader in Kuwait, Fahad Farraj Muhareb, whose death sentence was reduced to 15 years in prison.

The sole Kuwaiti executed on Thursday was identified by the Public Prosecution as Abdulaziz Al Mutairi, who was sentenced in 2015 for premeditated murder.

The other men executed were convicted in cases of murder and drug trafficking.

The executions are the first since January 25, 2017, when Kuwait hanged seven people, including a member of the royal family.

Death sentences in Kuwait are carried out only after approval by the Emir.

Kuwait has executed dozens of people since it introduced the death penalty in the mid-1960s. Most of the executions have been for murder or drug trafficking.

The first death sentence was carried out in Kuwait on May 17, 1964. Before Thursday’s decision, 84 people had been executed, including 20 Kuwaitis and 15 Pakistanis.