KUWAIT COURT CONDEMNS EGYPTIAN TO DEATH FOR CHILD RAPE

Kuwait's criminal court sentenced an Egyptian man to death after convicting him of raping several children, a legal source said. Hajjaj al-Saadi, 27, was arrested in July at Kuwait airport as he was preparing to board a flight back to Egypt. Police said Saadi had confessed to raping 17 children in Hawalli, a residential district 12 kilometres south of Kuwait City, but he denied the charges in court and said he had confessed under torture. The rapist earned the nickname "Hawalli monster" after a spate of attacks on boys and girls aged 10 years or less in the district. Kuwaiti police spent almost one year tracking the assailant for luring children to rooftops where he raped them, terrifying the residential neighbourhood mostly inhabited by foreigners. Saadi's death sentence is not final as it has to be confirmed by the emirate's courts of appeals and cassation.