Judicial Independence in Kuwait: Death Penalty for Royal Family Member
Reportedly caught in his home in Kuwait with 22 pounds of cocaine and 165 pounds of hashish, Talal Nasser al Sabah was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to death.
The capital sentence is highly unusual, in this case, because Talal is a member of the Persian Gulf country’s royal family, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Although the death penalty was upheld in June by Kuwait’s supreme court, it would still be possible—and customary, as far as a member of the ruling family is concerned—for the country’s emir to reverse the sentence. There has never before been a death penalty case against a Kuwaiti royal.
“The people of Kuwait are impressed with the independence of the judiciary and trust, in general, its rulings,” lawmaker Naser Sane tells the newspaper. “In other Arab gulf nations, you don’t see a court sentencing in this way a member of a ruling family.”
