Kuwait hangs five, including 2015 mosque bombing convict

Kuwait put to death five people on Thursday, including a man convicted of involvement in a 2015 Daesh group suicide bombing that killed 26 people, the Public Prosecution said.

The multiple executions in the Gulf emirate are the first since seven people were put to death in November last year ending a five-year moratorium.

In a statement, the Public Prosecution said it oversaw the "implementation of the death sentence in Kuwait's Central Prison" against five people, most of them accused of murder.

They include Abdulrahman Sabah Saud — the main convict in the 2015 bombing that struck a Shia mosque in the capital during Friday prayers. It was the bloodiest attack in Kuwait's history.

Saud 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.

The other men executed on Thursday included a Kuwaiti, an Egyptian and a member of Kuwait's stateless Bidoon minority, all of whom had been convicted of murder.

A Sri Lankan was put to death on drug charges.

The Public Prosecution said all five were executed by hanging.

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 Daesh leader in Kuwait, Fahad Farraj Muhareb whose death sentence was commuted to 15 years in prison.

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