ICC Note:
“Kuwait’s parliament on Thursday passed a bill stipulating the death penalty for Muslims who curse God, the Muslim holy book, all prophets and the wives of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed,” Independent Online News reports. The law will also be enacted against the country’s small Christian minority.
5/3/2012 Kuwait (SAPA) – Kuwait’s parliament on Thursday passed a bill stipulating the death penalty for Muslims who curse God, the Muslim holy book, all prophets and the wives of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed.
Forty MPs, including cabinet ministers, voted for the bill in the second and final round of voting, against six opponents who included all five Shiite MPs present and liberal MP Mohammad al-Sager.
The bill introduces two new articles to the Gulf state’s penal code specifically to stiffen penalties for such offences. Non-Muslims who commit the same offence face a jail term of not less than 10 years, according to the bill.
Defendants who repent in court will be spared capital punishment but will get a jail sentence for five years and a fine of $36,000.
“We do not want to execute people with opinions or thought because Islam respects these people… But we need this legislation because incidents of cursing God have increased. We need to deter them,” opposition MP Ali al-Deqbasi said during the debate.
The bill becomes effective after the government accepts it, the emir signs it and it is published in the official gazette within one month.
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