A Kuwaiti criminal court has sentenced two Pakistanis to death for trafficking in heroin, a newspaper reported Thursday.
The two men, Khan Jawin, 34, and Ali Shah, 38, were arrested in July while selling heroin to an undercover police agent. Some half a kilo (1.1 pounds) of the narcotics was seized from their house.
The two told the court they had brought the heroin for "personal consumption."
Death sentences in Kuwait can be appealed twice and must receive the final approval of the emir, who has the right to commute them.
Most of the heroin smuggled into Kuwait comes from Pakistan and Afghanistan. More than 100,000 Pakistanis and some 10,000 Afghans live in the emirate.
Despite stiff penalties, both drug use and trafficking continue to rise. More than half the number of court cases in Kuwait concern drugs.
Kuwait has executed 17 people since the 1991 Gulf War. Twenty-eight people convicted of serious crimes are on death row in the emirate.
Fifty-seven people died of drug overdoses in Kuwait during 1999, according to official figures -- KUWAIT CITY (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
