On Crime and Punishment *warning graphic content*

So, a lot of friends at home have asked me: "so what's crime like there?" or "what happens if you break the law?
I understand how the system is supposed to work, but then again, there is a level of corruption and inefficiency here that impedes the true nature of any criminal justice system. I just want to warn you that there might be a few strong photos below so be forewarned. Kudos if you can make it all the way through this, it's taken a while to come up with this :)

I have to preface my comments with the following caveat: I am a large Westerner, and a male, so I don't experience the harassment from locals unlike my fair skinned female counterparts here. If you're a woman, and especially blonde, you'll be honked at, followed for blocks, cat-called, and spoken to by Arab men asking for your phone number on a regular basis every time you go out walking. It can be really draining, and I give my female friends a lot of credit for putting up with that malarkey every time they venture out. I get sick of dealing with cab drivers and arguing over fares; I can't imagine adding another stressor to traveling on a daily basis-I'd develop a bad attitude quickly if I had to deal with that nonsense in addition to the usual weirdness. So basically I'm saying that this is my opinion, from my perspective, but I'm going to try to make it as educated as possible using my experience and what I've dug up.

As for the police here, to me, it seems like they keep a pretty low profile. Most of the time you just see them parked somewhere with their lights on and the officer is just sitting in his car talking on his cell phone. I've seen cops dressed in sweatsuits wearing the kevlar vest: the only thing identifying them as an officer of the law. (shady huh?) Usually once per day you hear sirens blaring and cars zooming down a crowded city street but other than that there isn't much of a police presence. Last night there was an interesting event: while walking home from the Marina Mall we were preparing to cross a 4 lane intersection when we heard sirens coming our way. A police car followed by an ambulance and a fire truck (two actually) rolled through the intersection preventing traffic from moving and us from crossing. The crazy part is that only the squad car got through the traffic! The ambulance and the fire trucks had to hop the curb and drive around the stopped traffic (therefore driving over the "island" meant for pedestrians (us!). People here don't yield enough to the emergency vehicles. It's really obnoxious to think that if someone was really in a life or death situation, where minutes count, and the ambulance gets delayed because a bunch of jerks couldn't be bothered to get out of the way for an emergency vehicle. I believe in karma though so I guess it'll all work out in the end.

The one thing you don't want to do though, is get in trouble. The system "follows" due process but your civil rights aren't exactly guaranteed. Since this country ranks 37th in corruption, things can happen to you before "the system" does its job. Let's just say that my first phone call would be to the Embassy, followed by a student I know who said to me: "If you get into any trouble, give me a call, I have "wasta" so that nothing will happen to you, I'll get you out." I believe him, and I would seek out any avenue to avert whatever consequence I might be heading towards because no doubt it would be harsher than what normal jurisprudence would dictate. Wasta is a term for gravitas, or "pull", or credibility, or influence...however you want to call it. This term embodies the corruption inherent in the system because it's proof that people manipulate their way out and around legal obstacles. Wasta permeates all levels of society, not just the criminal justice system. That's one reason for the crushing bureaucracy here.  Anyway, let me get back to some more gritty details.

The Kuwaiti judicial system is based on the Egyptian model, being a mixture of Islamic Sharia law (law of the Koran: this is reserved for family court), English common law, and the Ottoman civil code. It retains capital punishment, using a modified form of British style hanging and has carried out 72 executions (69 men and three women) between April 1964 and May 2007. No executions have been reported from May 2007 to December 2010, although a small number of new death sentences have been handed down. 
Kuwaiti law does not allow the execution of the insane or persons under 18 years of age. Capital cases are automatically reviewed by the Court of Appeal, and if upheld, are referred to the Court of Cassation, the country’s highest court, before being sent to the Amir for ratification. Once they have been approved by the Amir, an execution order is issued by the chief justice and passed to the prosecutor general.  Since1969, terrorist and treason trials have been tried before the State Security Court.

People always ask me if they put people to death here. I say "yep!" and one of the reasons they do would surprise you. I found this handy-dandy chart that shows all the executions that have taken place in Kuwait since the beginning. It's from an interesting website

Here is a list of those executed since 1964.

Date	Name	Nationality	Crime
17/04/1964	Khamis Mubarak	Omani	Murder of his brother
05/03/1969	Mallek Omar	Iraqi	Murder
26/06/1972	Rahim Mohammad	Iraqi	Murder of a relative
29/05/1974	Turki Abdel Karim	Syrian	Murder of a family of three
03/12/1979	Ohammad Sharif Nazir	Pakistani	Murder
27/10/1981	Hamid Shalal, Khaled Al-Wadi & Hahmid Hussein	Iraqi Saudi Iraqi	Abducting, raping and killing two young girls
16/10/1981	Fira Fan Nowonk & Noi Nima	Thai	Robbery murder of a shop owner
05/02/1985	Jassem Al-Doussari	Kuwaiti	Robbery murder of three people
05/02/1985	Jassem Al-Shumari	Kuwaiti	Robbery murder of a man
17/02/1985	Salim Suleiman Eid	Kuwaiti	Robbery murder of a man
16/12/1986	Unnamed man	-	Murder of his wife
??/01/1986	Nadi 'Abu al-Hamad Uthman	Egyptian	Murder of fellow Egyptian
10/03/1986	Ranja Suami	Indian	Murder and theft
11/09/1988	Ayad Faihan	Kuwaiti	Murder
12/09/1988	Abbas 'Aziz Wanan Shamkhi	Palestinian	Murder
12/09/1988	Alice Norban Barissi  (f) Farida Taher Sheeh  (f)	Indian	Murder & burglary (separate counts)
07/08/1989	Fransisco Arango	Indian	Double murder
08/05/1993	Abdel Hassan Khodor	Iraqi	Murder of a Kuwaiti border guard
14/12/1993	Kamel Mattar	Bedoun **	Murder of a relative
07/08/1994	Mohammad Kulaib Sriouil Al-Rashidi	Kuwaiti	Abducting and raping a girl of 10
??/04/1995	Mohammad Najib Ahmad Massoud	Filipino	Killing a shop owner
16/07/1995	Ahmad Raja Ayed Al-Azemi	Kuwaiti	Murder of bridegroom and another man at wedding
10/09/1995	Turki Mohammad Rafaa	Stateless (Bedoun **)	Abducting, raping and killing a 15 year old girl
22/09/1996	Captain Bader Abdel Karim Sultan Al-Bashir	Kuwaiti	Murder of a Syrian woman
21/09/1997	Hamdi Abdel Azim & Hassan Abdel Hadi	Egyptian	Murder of Kuwaiti citizen
31/05/1998	Hamad al-Hajeri, Musaed bou Gaith and Badr Zaid al-Mutairi	Kuwaiti	Murder of two men Sexual assault and murder
19/07/1998	Hassan Burnaymi, Hassan Maye Salmin & Yassin Baoa Abdel Ghafur	Iranian Iranian Sri Lankan	Drug trafficking Drug trafficking Murder and rape
07/02/2000	Matar al-Mutairi	Kuwaiti	Robbery murder
17/06/2001	Qadeer Kaleeja (f) (24)	Indian	Murder and theft from her employer
10/04/2002	Fahd Abdullah Ali	Kuwaiti	Murder of colleague
30/06/2002	Anwar Khan Mohammed, Anwar al-Zamman & Mohammed Abdul-Sattar	Bangladeshi	Murder of Sri Lankan maid
20/01/2004	Fazel Shirin Mohammad Sherif	Pakistani	Drug trafficking
27/01/2004	Shafiq Nathir Hussein & Mohammad Assef Ahmad	Pakistani	Drug trafficking Kidnap and murder
31/05/2004	Marzook Saad Suleiman Al-Saeed Saeed Saad Suleiman Al-Saeed & Hamad Mubarak Turki Al-Dihani	Saudi Saudi Kuwaiti	Abduction, rape and murder of a 6 year old girl.
12/07/2004	Ghannam Abdullah al-Mutairi	Kuwaiti	Murder of a friend
17/08/2004	Uwaisdeen Abdurabi Nistar & Abdulhassan Mohammad Ajmeer	Sri Lankan	Murder of a Canadian citizen
11/01/2005	Ayub Shah & Othman Ghani Mehrab Khan	Pakistani	Drug trafficking
04/12/2005	Syed Mudassar Shah, Muhammad Ahmad Khan, Faiz Muhammad Umar, and Abdul Basar Umar	Pakistani	Drug trafficking
21/12/2005	Thamer Marzouq Al-Azmi	Kuwaiti	Murder
02/05/2006	Mayan Mohammad Iqbal Farraj Mansour Nasser Al-Rukaibi Saad Iklaifeekh Tammah Al-Mutairi Mohammad Al-Shimmiri	Pakistani Kuwaiti Kuwaiti Kuwaiti	Drug trafficking Rape & murder of girl Murder Kidnap and rape of girl
11/07/2006	Shakarullah Ansari	Indian	Murder
21/11/2006	Taj Muhammad Abdulghani, Abdulraheem Nadershah, Jahangeer Alam Ameer & Faraj Jawda Majood	Pakistani Pakistani Bangladeshi Palestinian	Drug trafficking Drug trafficking Murder of a fellow Bangladeshi Murder
28/11/2006	Sanjaya Rowan Kumara	Sri Lankan	Murder of an Asian woman
20/05/2007	Khan Anwar Islam	Pakistani	Drug trafficking

** Kuwait is home to some 180,000 stateless Arabs, known as "bedoun" - Arabic for "without" - who were originally members of nomadic tribes.*Source* http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/kuwait.html

On the 25th of April 1995, the National Assembly passed a Law on the Combat of Drugs (No. 74 of 1983) which extended the use of the death penalty for several drug related crimes.(emphasis added) One of these is drug trafficking. So if you are arrested with a large amount of drugs in your possession, you could be facing execution. Seventeen men have been executed for drug offenses to date.

You don't want to end up driving into this palace...the gallows await

Up to 1985, hangings were carried out in public at the Nayef Palace Square and after that within Central Prison.  The gallows there was probably built by the British and only had capacity for one prisoner at a time.  A British style noose was used with a brass eyelet and leather covered rope. A measured drop was given and executions were carried out at 8.00 a.m. Now it's modernized to handle multiple executions at a time.

It's just like the old West: crowds, gallows, and the spectacle of it all

2005 was a banner year for public executions

2005.

On the 11th of January 2005, two men of Pakistani origin, Ayub Bani Shah and Othman Ghani Mehrab Khan, were hanged for drug trafficking. Shah and Khan had been found guilty of smuggling heroin and hashish into the Kingdom. One man’s head was torn off by the force of the drop.

Four more Pakistani men were hanged at the Nayef Palace on the 2nd of October 2005 for drug offences.  They were Mohammed Ahmed Khan, 33, Abdul-Basir Abudl-Hai Mohammed Ishaq, 50, Faz Mohammed Youssef Khan, 32, and Sayyed Modather Shah Hikmat, 26.  They had been found guilty of smuggling heroin by swallowing it in capsules. Customs officials at Kuwait International Airport suspected them of smuggling as they entered the country on different dates in 2002 with forged passports.
A further four Pakistani drugs smugglers went to the gallows on Saturday, the 3rd of December 2005.  They were 30 year old Syed Mudassar Shah from Charsadda, Muhammad Ahmad Khan, aged 29 from Bara, Faiz Muhammad Umar, aged 30 from Charsadda, and Abdul Basar Umar, aged 51, from Swabi.

Twenty one year old Kuwaiti, Thamer Marzouq Al-Azmi, was hanged at 9.00 a.m. on Wednesday, the 21st of December for the shooting murder of Adel Lafi Al-Azmi. He had also been convicted of abducting and molesting a minor, Mona Daghmi Al-Azmi.*source*http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/kuwait.html

So the drug trafficking-death sentence connection seemed interesting to me. I would say "that's the way to win the war on drugs" in the United States...but then again, the numbers you'd be dealing with would be staggering. Sure would take a load of stress off of our corrections system though seeing how a vast majority of prisoners are convicted on drug-related charges. The other issue is that within a few years, my guess is marijuana will be legal in more states so that federally-speaking it will be time to act on that and make it legal nationwide.

Other issues that the capital punishment website brings up, without directly stating it because it's a dirty little secret they don't like to talk about it is the Bedouin situation. Bedouins are disenfranchised here, and treated like a lower form of life. I have 1 student that is Bedouin and he is taunted mercilessly some days. He's been in multiple fights this year, and I know that he's basically on survival mode in school. He rides over an hour to school each day. Can you imagine the anticipation he must deal with on that ride? An example of what the kids do to him in groups is make monkey sounds when he walks into a room. I punished the noisemakers pretty severely when they did that so I haven't heard it since but man, middle schoolers can be cruel. The Bedouin community here has been clamoring for more representation in government and their protests have been shut down by state security or police so it's a serious situation with no clear result in sight.

The other issue is the one of human trafficking. It's a serious issue here because of the way "maids" and "servants" are treated. They're in quotes because they're almost slaves...stuck in a form of indentured servitude and subjected to verbal, physical, and emotional abuse. There have been instances where maids have been murdered without any consequence. One story I heard was that a maid who was "fired" and was being driven to the airport or taken back to the service used to place her and she made the mistake of commenting or back-talking to the "man of the house" and he beat her to death. So that's the sort of situation these people get themselves embroiled in sometimes. 

Here's a little from http://www.nationmaster.com/country/ku-kuwait/cri-crime
 "Kuwait is a destination country for men and women who migrate legally from South and Southeast Asia for domestic or low-skilled labor, but are subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude by employers in Kuwait including conditions of physical and sexual abuse, non-payment of wages, confinement to the home, and withholding of passports to restrict their freedom of movement; Kuwait is reportedly a transit point for South and East Asian workers recruited for low-skilled work in Iraq; some of these workers are deceived as to the true location and nature of this work, and others are subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude in Iraq"

" Transnational Issues > Trafficking in persons > Tier rating
Tier 3 - insufficient efforts in 2007 to prosecute and punish abusive employers and those who traffic women for sexual exploitation; the government failed for the fourth year in a row to live up to promises to provide shelter and protective services for victims of involuntary domestic servitude and other forms of trafficking"

So the government is not doing a whole lot about it...which means status quo

On a lighter note, here's Kuwait's rank for diplomat unpaid parking tickets!

Unpaid diplomatic parking fines

246.2

[1st of 143]

The one thing I will say is that there's got to be a "random factor" of people not ever making it to those statistics...as in, they just disappear. I'm sure it's happened. So I guess in a sense you could take this whole blog with a grain of salt but my intention was to satiate your morbid curiosity by giving you a ballpark idea of what the criminal justice system is like here. I know I don't want to be on the wrong side of the law!

Wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of the Kuwaiti verson of Dirty Harry!

In other fun-related news I finally received my civil identification. This means I could buy a car, rent a car, open a bank account, buy a sim card, and rent a gun at a shooting range. Guess which one I did first with my civil ID? That's right, went to the gun range, the red-blooded American that I am. I had a day of go-karting and gun shooting. The go karts are great here. They don't have any governors on them to restrict performance so you can literally go as fast as you dare. I had fun powersliding around the turns and drifting into friends. The gun range was fun too! Money well spent. I rented a 5.56 x 45mm rifle. The scope was fuzzy and the "crosshairs" were more like "xhairs" since it was a little crooked. But it was zeroed, so long as I could deal with the out-of-focus factor. Here's my target at the range.

Always think of Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein: "Nice Groupings" (when the inspector cheats at darts)

Thanks for reading, sorry it took so long between blogs...hope all are well

Gnomey says: "keep 'em in the 10 ring!"