Kuwait court sentences seven to death

Seven suspects were sentenced to death in Kuwait on Tuesday for their role in a June bombing that killed 27 people, according to state news agency KUNA. The Kuwait criminal court also handed down prison sentences, ranging from two to 15 years, to eight other suspects. An additional 14 defendants were acquitted in the ruling.

A total of 29 defendants, seven of them women, had been on trial in connection with the June 26 attack on the Al-Imam Al-Sadeq mosque in Kuwait City, which caters to minority Shiites. In the immediate aftermath of the bombing, which injured 227 people on top of the 27 killed while attending Friday prayers, an offshoot of the "Islamic State" (IS) terrorist group claimed responsibility for the incident.

Among the defendants were seven Kuwaitis, five Saudis, three Pakistanis and 13 stateless individuals from the Arabian peninsula known as Bedoon. Several suspects remain at large - including two Saudi brothers who are thought to have smuggled the explosives into Kuwait from Saudi Arabia.

It was the first time Kuwaiti citizens had been targeted, but the Sunni extremists in IS have made it clear they consider Shiites to be heretics. In the weeks before the attack in Kuwait, IS carried out similar bombings at Shiite mosques in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

es/jil (AFP, Reuters)