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Nasra al-Enezi - a woman scorned. |
Nasra
Yusuf Mohamed al-Enezi (also given as Nusra Anzi) became the first Kuwaiti
woman ever to be hanged, when she went to the gallows within Central Prison on
Wednesday the 25th of January 2017.
Click here for a
photo of her.
The al-Enzi’s were a well to do couple. Nasra and her husband, 36 year old Zayed Zafiri, had two children, Shaqha, 5, and Muhammad, 3. Under Kuwaiti law a man is allowed more than one wife and in August 2009, Zayed Zafiri married for the second time.
The then 23 year old was
convicted of setting fire to a wedding tent in Jahra
on Saturday the 15th of August 2009, in what would be the deadliest civilian
disaster in the country’s history. In
all 57 women and children died in the blaze, after Nasra
poured petrol on the tent and ignited it.
Within three minutes the tent was completely engulfed.
The crime was committed out of jealousy and in revenge for her husband taking a
second wife. The new bride escaped
injured, but her mother and sister were killed, as were at least seven
children. In many cases the bodies were
burnt beyond recognition and had to be identified from DNA and dental
records. A further 90 people were
injured.
It was reported that Nasra’s maid had told police she saw her employer pouring petrol around the large women-only tent. Men, including the groom, were in a separate tent. Unlicensed wedding tents for women were popular because ladies did not need to cover their heads. Due to having only one exit and no fire precautions they were made illegal after this incident. A link to an Al Jazeera news video in English of the aftermath is here.
Nasra was arrested the following day and initially confessed to the crime. She was charged with premeditated and attempted murder and arson, as crime No. 546/2009. She was tried in the Court of First Instance, the proceedings beginning on the 27th of October 2009, where she denied the charges and said that her confession was made under threat and coercion. She also claimed that she lost a baby after she was given abortion pills by a prison employee related to her husband. On the 24th of November, Judge Adel al-Sager ordered Nasra to undergo psychiatric tests after her defense lawyers claimed that she had suffered unspecified mental disorders when she was a child. He also agreed to summon the woman’s husband and her Asian maid who said that she saw her starting the fire to testify at the next hearing on the 8th of December 2009. Nasra told the court that she had poured "cursed water" onto the tent in a black magic ritual.
She was sentenced to death on Tuesday the 30th of March
2010, by Judge Adel al-Sager. Her sentence upheld by the
It is reported that Nasra and the other two women were transferred to isolation cells in Central Prison on Monday the 23rd of January. On the morning of execution security in and around the prison was very tight. Snipers were positioned on the roofs of nearby buildings. Four doctors and six technicians arrived at the prison at five in the morning. It would seem that, the by now 30 year Nasra, was taken by police SUV to the place of execution in the staff car park. It is here the death warrants are normally read and then she was led up the steps of the gallows by male officers and placed upon the trap doors. On the signal being given by dropping the black flag, the lever was pulled and she plunged through the trap. The other women were hanged later, they were Jakatia Mandon Pawa, and Omkel Oku Mekonnen. Jakatia Mandon Pawa, a 42 year old Filipina woman, was convicted in 2008 of killing her employer's daughter. Omkel Oku Mekonnen, an Ethiopian for whom no age has been given, murdered the daughter of her Lebanese employer in Hawalli in 2008. All three women were reportedly in a state of near collapse, although this cannot be confirmed. Four men were hanged on the same day, three, including a member of the Royal family.
It is probable that the sequence of these executions was as follows : The first to die was Sheikh Faisal Abdullah, the
first member of the royal family to be executed in
Nasra was apparently also executed on her own half an hour later. Then came the other two women, an Ethiopian and a Filipina maid, both of whom were convicted of the murder of a member of their employer’s family. They were followed by the other men, two Egyptian men who had . been convicted of premeditated murder and a Bangladeshi man who was convicted of abduction and rape. By 10.30 a.m. the process was completed and all the bodies had been removed.
The Kuwaiti media were excluded from witnessing the hangings on this occasion. The executions drew little adverse comment in the newspapers.
Responding to the inevitable criticism form the human rights organizations,
in a statement to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), Assistant Foreign Minister for
Legal Affairs Ambassador Ghanim Al-Ghanim asserted, “The death penalty verdicts pronounced by
the courts were in cases of premeditated murders and the punishment was carried
out after exhausting all levels of litigation.
The verdicts were based on indisputable evidence that the convicts
committed the crimes as charged. The evidence included testimonies from
witnesses and confessions by those accused of committing grave crimes.” Al-Ghanim clarified the verdicts were announced following fair
and public trials “in which all the guarantees stipulated by the Kuwaiti law
were provided and lawyers assumed the task of defending their clients.” He
affirmed, “The verdicts were upheld by the
Comment.
There seems little doubt that Nasra was the perpetrator of the crime, but what is far from clear is whether she intended the horrific outcome or whether she just wanted to disrupt the wedding ceremony as a protest. Given the ensuing carnage, public opinion was hardly going to be on her side, a point made by her defense attorney. It also perhaps made it difficult for the Amir not to confirm the sentence.
