This Article is From May 27, 2010

Death sentence for woman who set fire to wedding tent

Dubai: A court in Kuwait has confirmed death sentence against a woman who allegedly killed 57 women and children in a tent fire as her husband took a second wife, her lawyer has said.

Zaid Al Khabbaz, the lawyer of the accused woman, said he would take her case to the Cassation Court to overrule the verdict.
    
Al Khabbaz made the pledge after the Court of Appeals confirmed the death sentence against Nasra Al Enezi, pronounced by a lower court in March on charges of "premeditated murder and starting a fire with the intent to kill."
    
The defendant had denied the charges and her lawyer has consistently urged the court to dismiss her initial confessions and to take into consideration clashes in the witnesses' testimonies.
    
Nasra who was arrested one day after the August 15 tragedy, the worst in Kuwait's modern peace time history, initially admitted that she started the fire in revenge against her husband for taking a second wife and against her sisters-in-law for "ruining her married life."
    
She said that she took a taxi and bought petrol in a bottle before heading to the tent in north-west of Kuwait City, where women and children were waiting for the bride.
    
In her confessions, the defendant said that she just wanted to spoil the celebrations and never planned to kill anyone.
    
The fire engulfed the 200-seat tent in three minutes and caused a deadly stampede as the guests struggled to flee through a single exit.
    
If her death sentence is upheld by the Supreme Court, she would be the first Kuwaiti woman to be executed in the Gulf state's history.

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