Kuwaiti mother and boyfriend kill 5-year-old daughter, get death sentence

A Kuwaiti mother and her boyfriend have been sentenced to death for killing the woman's daughter, a 5-year-old with special needs, Gulf News reported on Thursday.

Investigators found that the couple had beaten the girl to death to "get rid of her" and that the mother's boyfriend had regularly beaten the deceased before the murder.

The couple was first arrested in August 2017, after the woman called authorities to report the death of her young daughter.

The mother had claimed her daughter fell from a height in their house in the Mubarak Al Kabeer governorate.

However, police and paramedics noticed bruises on the body of the deceased as well as burns on her left arm, sparking suspicion about the cause of her death.

The mother, who was 26 years old at the time, and her boyfriend, 24 then, were thus taken into custody pending investigation.

Investigators found that prior to her death, the daughter had been subjected to frequent physical abuse by her mother's boyfriend.

While the mother initially claimed her boyfriend was responsible for beating her daughter to death, the boyfriend said she also abused her and took part in her murder.

According to Gulf News, the mother wanted to "get rid of" her daughter.

Unless the court's ruling is overturned by the Court of Appeal, the Court of Cassation, or the Emir, the couple will be put to death. 

According to the Human Rights Watch, Kuwait maintains the death penalty for both violent and nonviolent offenses, such as drug-related charges. 

In January 2017, the country ended a four-year freeze on the death penalty and executed eight people, including a member of the ruling family, for the first time since 2013.

Prince Sheikh Faisal Al Abdullah Al Sabah, the grandson of Kuwait's 12th Amir, was executed for premeditated murder and illegal possession of a firearm.

The other executed convicts, who included nationals from the Philippines, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Bangladesh, were charged with different offenses, including murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, and rape.