5 men and 2 women were put to death in a rare mass execution in Kuwait

• The Kuwait government hanged seven prisoners in the first mass execution in five years.
• Those killed included three Kuwaiti men, a Kuwaiti woman, a Syrian man, a Pakistani man, and an Ethiopian woman.

The Kuwait government put to death seven prisoners in the first mass execution in five years.

The state-run news agency KUNA news has said that those killed include three Kuwaiti men, a Kuwaiti woman, a Syrian man, a Pakistani man, and an Ethiopian woman. The inmates were hanged on Wednesday, reported al-Jazeera.

The Kuwaiti Office of Public Prosecution said in a statement that the executions were carried out by "hanging" after the Emir of the country, Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, approved them,reported euronews.com.

The death sentences were carried out for a range of crimes, including murder, kidnapping, and the possession and use of an unlicensed firearm.

A statement from the Kuwaiti Office of Public Prosecution confirmed the executions and said that the condemned prisoners had "deprived the victims of their most sacred rights in this world, which is the right to life," AP reports.

Counselor Mohammed Al-Duaij of the Office of Public Prosecution told the Kuwait daily newspaper al-Qabas that executions were "a legitimate matter for retribution," citing a verse from the Quran, reported the human rights group, per Amnesty International, the human rights group.

The last mass execution happened in 2017 when seven prisoners — including a member of the Kuwaiti royal family — were hanged in the oil-rich state, AP reported at the time.

The European Union was highly critical of the latest Kuwaiti killings. "The EU calls for a halt to executions and for a complete de facto moratorium on carrying out death penalty," it said in a statement.

Adding to the criticism, Amna Guellali, Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said that "the death penalty is a violation of the right to life and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment."