Sordid Saga Ends as Defiant ‘Hawally Monster’ Hanged – Fellow Egyptian arsonist also executed for murders

KUWAIT TIMES: Two Egyptian men were hanged at the Central Jail in Sulaibiya yesterday, bringing the total number of people executed this year to five after Kuwait ended a six-year moratorium on executions in April. Convicted serial child rapist Hajjaj Mohammad Adel Al-Saadi – known as the “Hawally Monster” for his reign of terror in the governorate and beyond – and convicted killer Ahmad Abdulsalam Al-Baili were hanged after exhausting all appeals. Two Indians and a Pakistani were also supposed to be hanged yesterday, but their executions were postponed.

Earlier, the men were brought out one by one from a police van and made to stand before a panel of police officers and justice officials as the charges against them were read out loud. Baili was found guilty of killing an Asian couple – Mohammad Jamaluddin Abbas and Nandini Vijitha Sinha – by setting their home on fire in 2008. He also tried to kill an Egyptian couple – Amr Mohammad Jamaluddin and Fatima Sayed Ismael – the same way. They survived despite suffering injuries. Saadi was accused of raping 17 boys and girls aged between 6 and 12 after luring them onto rooftops, mostly in Hawally, in 2006 and 2007. He was found guilty on five counts. After an intense manhunt, Saadi was arrested in 2007 onboard a plane bound for Luxor, bringing his yearlong crime spree to an end.

While Baili silently shook his head or nodded at his alleged crimes, Saadi defiantly denied the litany of charges against him and repeatedly interrupted the proceedings by loudly reciting the shahadah (Muslim declaration of faith) and shouting religious slogans. He also complained that he had not been given any assistance from the Egyptian government. A cleric then spent some time with the condemned men. Sheikh Mohammad Ghadeer later told reporters that Saadi asked to pray four rak’ats, and his request was granted. Since his hands were bound, he prayed in a standing position. Baili also prayed in a similar fashion. Both men then recited the shahadah before they were led to the gallows.

Saadi continued to recite the shahadah on the top of his voice while hangmen trussed the two up and slipped nooses around their necks and hoods over their heads. “Paradise,” Saadi screamed as the trapdoors opened. Baili dropped to his death like a stone, but Saadi – a bodybuilder and trainer – writhed for a while. Medics declared both men dead around 10 minutes later.

Human rights organisations were aghast. “This new round of executions indicates that Kuwait is moving in exactly the wrong direction regarding the death penalty,” said Joe Stork of Human Rights Watch. “The government should cancel the executions immediately and reinstate the moratorium that had been in place since 2007,” he added. “All executions in Kuwait must stop immediately,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa. The London-based watchdog had written to HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah to express dismay at the resumption of the death penalty this year, she said.

Judge Mohammad Rashed Al-Duaij, the head of the criminal execution and international cooperation department at the Ministry of Justice, said the death sentences were endorsed by HH the Amir, adding that 29 people remain on death row. In April, a Saudi, Pakistani and a bedoon who were convicted of murder were executed. Kuwait has executed 71 men and three foreign women since it introduced the death penalty in mid-1960. Most of those condemned have been convicted murderers or drug traffickers.

By Shakir Reshamwala


LWDLIK - Where are the human rights for the victims? Do they not deserve justice? I'm all for the death penalty why put these monsters in jail and pay for their upkeep for life. Ending their lives may help to put an end to the nightmares that those victims must have every night.