10 January 2023 :
A stalker who tried to kidnap a woman to force her to marry him and then murdered her in front of her daughter and niece when she refused to go with him has been sentenced to death by hanging in Kuwait, Mirror reported on 14 December 2022.
The woman who died, Farah Hamza Akbar, 32, was killed in Sabah Al-Salem, in Kuwait, in April 2021, by an unnamed man who was a member of the Kuwaiti military.
The court heard that he wanted to marry the woman, but she rejected his advances. However, he persisted and even placed a tracking device on her car so he could follow what she did.
He used the same tracking device to locate her car and try to kidnap the woman, who was already married, as part of his plan to force her to marry him, but when she refused to go with him, he stabbed her to death in front of the two children, reportedly her niece and her own daughter, and then fled.
He was jailed for life but the latest ruling by the court of cassation, overseen by judge Abdullah Al-Jassem, said that this was too lenient.
The judge sentenced him to death, overturning the life imprisonment ruling that had been given on the grounds that the premeditated aspect of the killing could not be proven.
Both the public prosecutor and the defendant had appealed, with the former demanding the death penalty and the latter demanding that the sentence be reduced further.
The court heard that the already-married woman had repeatedly complained about the stalker but he refused to take no for an answer.
Her lifeless body was then left outside a hospital, but she did not survive the attack, which happened during the holy month of Ramadan.
News of Farah’s death prompted public outrage, with over 200 people rallying to mourn the victim and demand tougher penalties for acts of violence committed against women.