By B Izzak

KUWAIT: A number of lawmakers yesterday demanded an investigation into how interior ministry officers failed to provide protection to a Kuwaiti woman who was brutally killed despite filing several complaints. The woman, FA, was abducted by a Kuwaiti man on Tuesday, who allegedly stabbed her and then abandoned her outside Adan hospital in Mubarak Al-Kabeer area. The woman later succumbed to her wounds.

According to MP Hisham Al-Saleh, the woman and her sister had filed several complaints at the police station saying that the man had threatened them. He said that the man was taken into custody and later freed. The sister claimed that the man continued to pursue her and threatened her for several months after her parents refused his request to marry her. The woman told police that he had threatened her repeatedly. The alleged murderer has been arrested by security men.

In a series of questions to Interior Minister Sheikh Thamer Al-Sabah, the lawmaker asked the minister about the number of complaints the woman and her sister had filed to the ministry and the measures that were taken by the ministry before the crime was committed. He also asked why the interior ministry had not provided her with protection despite filing several complaints of threats from the murderer.

He asked about the number of complaints of threats on life and abductions the interior ministry received in 2019 and 2020. Saleh asked what would the ministry take to prevent such crimes from happening in the future. The lawmaker asked how many death sentences have been issued by the court of cassation so far and how many of them have been executed. He also inquired about the number of death sentences that had not been carried out and the reasons.

MP Mohammad Al-Mutair called on HH the Prime Minister to order an immediate investigation among senior interior ministry officers and public attorneys into the matter. The lawmaker described the crime as a catastrophe. MP Osama Al-Munawer said death sentences must be the just punishment for such brutal murders and it must be executed as soon as possible to curb criminals.

In September 2020, after years of activism, Kuwait established a new law offering protection for domestic violence. The new legislation creates the framework for the establishment of shelters and a hotline to receive domestic violence complaints, provides counseling and legal assistance for victims, and allows for emergency protection orders (restraining orders) to prevent abusers from contacting their victim. Domestic and gender-based violence against women in Kuwait is a growing matter of public debate as there have been several instances of women killed by family members, or male acquaintances in recent years.