KUWAIT: A Kuwaiti husband and wife were sentenced to death on Monday by the criminal court for killing their Filipina housemaid by detaining and beating her and then burying her body in their garden. The court was told that the couple repeatedly beat their maid with a stick and prevented her from taking her medicine until she died. They then buried her in their garden before authorities found the decaying body. The court convicted the couple of premeditated murder and for forcing her to work without pay which is considered a trafficking in person charge under Kuwaiti law.
The sentence is not final as it can be appealed at the court of appeals and the court of cassation, the country’s top court whose rulings are final. In the meantime, the criminal court on Monday sentenced a Kuwaiti man to 15 years in jail for joining the Islamic State jihadist group, outlawed in Kuwait for its terrorist attacks. The man was accused of joining the group and funding it. The ruling can be challenged at the court of appeals and the court of cassation.