Live pictures of three prisoners hanged in front of media outside Kuwait jail

Kuwait, Apr 3 : Kuwait on Tuesday hanged three prisoners outside a jail in the presence of mediapersons. Those executed included a Pakistani, a Saudi Arab national and a stateless Bedouin (nomad). The live pictures, posted in Kuwait Times, show, executioners gave a cigarette to the Saudi prisoner, who demanded a puff, before he went up the scaffold.Just a few minutes later he and two others were led up a short flight of stairs, nooses are placed around their necks before a trapdoor opens beneath their feet. These were the first executions in Kuwait since 2007.Kuwait's Ministry of Justice said, the three were hanged outside the central jail, west of Kuwait City in front of judicial and security officials. The Pakistani prisoner who was executed was Parvez Ghulam, while the Saudi national was Faisal Al-Oteibi.Parvez Ghulam as convicted of killing a Kuwaiti couple, while the Saudi had stabbed a compatriot to death. The stateless Arab Dhaher Al-Oteibi was hanged for shooting and killing his wife and five children after claiming that he was a long-awaited imam Mohammed Al-Mahdi, who disappeared from the earth in the 10th century and is said to be due to return to save mankind.Prosecution attorney Mohammed Al-Duaji, who supervised the executions, told the official Kuwaiti News Agency KUNA that another 48 people were on death row awaiting a final decision from the Kuwaiti Emir.Under Kuwaiti law, the Emir has the right to commute death sentences to a life term. Kuwait's ministry of information denied reports claiming that the execution of the three prisoners was covered live the state media networks. Media reports said, authorities had invited journalists from Kuwaiti publications to witness the executions.The last recorded case of the death penalty being carried out in Kuwait was six years ago when a Pakistani man was executed for drug trafficking, according to Amnesty International.Kuwait, which has a population of around three and a half million people, operates a judicial system which is a mixture of Islamic Sharia law, English common law, and the Ottoman civil code. The state carried out 72 executions (69 men and three women) between April 1964 and May 2007.