Kuwait royal's death sentence confirmed

Kuwait's supreme court has upheld a death sentence against a member of the emirate's ruling Al-Sabah family for drug trafficking.

The sentence against the royal, named only as Sheikh Talal, was already upheld by an appeals court in December.

The final decision can only be carried out after being signed by the emir, who also has the right to commute it.

The appeals court also confirmed a life term against 3 accomplices, a stateless Arab, a Bangladeshi and an Indian. 2 others, a Lebanese and an Iraqi, were sentenced to 7 years in jail each.

It is not clear if those rulings were revised by the supreme court.

A lower criminal court in January sentenced the royal to death - a 1st in the history of oil-rich Kuwait - which usually carries out executions by hanging.

Police arrested the group in April 2007 and seized a large drugs haul, including at least 10kg of cocaine and 120kg of hashish.

The arrest was made on the orders of Kuwait's Defence Minister Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Sabah, a former interior minister and leading figure in the ruling family.

(source: Agence France Presse)