Kuwait City, October 27: A Kuwaiti woman denied in court today that she set fire to a wedding tent and caused a blaze that killed 55 women and children.
Nasra Yussef Mohammad al-Enezi simply replied “No” when judge Adel al-Sager asked her if she had started the fire and killed the people.
It was the only word the 23-year-old spoke during the brief hearing which opened her trial on charges including premeditated murder.
She was brought to the small courtroom from the central prison, accompanied by five female guards and – looking frail and pale, was allowed to sit outside the dock, which is not a usual treatment for defendants that are in custody.
Nasra initially refused to speak after two female prison guards had helped her to the judge’s rostrum.
Dressed in a long grey dress, the young woman had entered the court with her face fully covered.
But when she approached the judge, guards removed the cover revealing her stunned face.
She refused to answer questions by the judge, who ordered guards to give her water and told her to sit.
The judge then proceeded with other cases. At the second attempt to ask her plea, she denied the charges.
Her three defence lawyers called for her release pending the full trial and accused prison officials of mistreating her.
Defence lawyers alleged that Nasra was two-months pregnant when arrested and was “deliberately aborted” by a prison guard with the help of an Asian nurse.
Lawyer Khaled al-Awadhi told reporters the prison guard is a relative of Nasra’s husband and has since been transferred from the prison.
Lawyer Saqqaf al-Saqqaf said that he believes Nasra was made to take drugs, passed off as tranquilisers, that immediately caused her abortion.
Prison officials failed to send her to the hospital for examination of the cause of the abortion, he said.
Saqqaf added that under Kuwaiti law, death sentences for pregnant women are automatically commuted to life imprisonment. “Perhaps this is the reason why they aborted her,” he said.
The three lawyers demanded in court that Nasra should be examined by a doctor to establish how she lost her baby and when.
The public prosecutor presented no arguments during the hearing, but lawyer Zaid al-Khabbaz told reporters that the woman is charged with “premeditated murder and starting a fire with the intent to kill.”
The judge rejected all the applications made by the lawyers and set November 17 for the next session, to hear defence arguments.
Nasra was arrested on August 16, a day after 41 women and children died in a fire at a wedding tent in Jahra, west of Kuwait City. The death toll later rose to 55, according to the interior ministry.
The woman was initially believed to be the groom’s ex-wife, but her defence lawyers say that she is still his wife. Polygamy is allowed in this Muslim Gulf state.
According to the official story, she poured petrol on the tent, which was crowded with women and children, and then set it on fire.
—Agencies