Kuwait to hang woman over wedding fire that killed 57

Kuwait has upheld a woman's death sentence for setting her husband's wedding tent on fire, killing 57 women and children.

Nasra Yussef Mohammed al-Enezi, 24, had appealed to Kuwait's supreme court after being condemned to death by a lower and appeals courts for the apparent act of revenge against her husband for taking a second wife.

Under Islamic laws, men in Kuwait can take up to four wives.

Enezi reportedly initially confessed to the crime, saying it was out of anger at her husband for taking a new wife and her sisters-in-law for “destroying her life," Al Arabiya reports. But she said her intention was to ruin the party and not kill the guests. 

The Aug. 15, 2009, fire engulfed the women-and-children-only tent in minutes and triggered a stampede.

Enezi will become the first local woman to be executed in Kuwait by hanging, the only form of capital punishment in the kingdom, unless her sentence is commuted to life by the emir, Agene France-Presse reports. Three foreign women have been hanged.

Enezi, who has two children from her husband, subsequently denied the charges. Her defence lawyers argued there was no material evidence to convict her.

Of the 72 people Kuwait has executed since it introduced the death penalty four decades ago, most were convicted murderers or drug traffickers.