KUWAIT: A Kuwaiti woman was shot dead in her hospital bed by her brother, two days after she was hospitalized with gunshot wounds inflected by her other brother in a crime that shocked Kuwait. Mubarak Hospital doctors had managed to save the victim's life after she was rushed there when her brother shot her outside her house in Salwa. Police were able to arrest the suspect the same night at Anjafa beach. But while his sister was recovering at Mubarak Hospital's ICU, their other sibling made his way to her room on Wednesday and shot her twice, killing her instantly, before escaping.

The killer later turned himself in at Jahra police station, but the crime sent shockwaves throughout the community due to its gruesome details, and raised many questions such as how the suspect managed to reach the victim and commit his crime when her room was supposed to be heavily guarded, and then escape from hospital and remain at large. Security sources quoted in an Al-Rai report published yesterday noted that while being interrogated, the policeman assigned to guard the victim at the hospital said that he was at the other end of the ward when he heard the shooting, and ran with others towards the ICU but failed to arrest the shooter. The policeman was detained pending further investigations.

When police inspected the hospital's CCTV camera tapes, they saw that the killer was wearing sports clothes, a cap and a facemask. A relative of the victim identified him from the video as the victim's brother, and search was on for him before he turned himself in. The exact motive of the crime remains unclear, but investigations with the suspect who committed the initial shooting revealed that it was for family disputes. The two remain in police's custody further legal action.

Stabbed outside court
In another case, detectives are currently in search of a person who stabbed a non-Kuwaiti woman he knows outside a court in Jahra, said security sources. Case papers indicate that the girl was getting out of the court house when a citizen whom she had been having legal disputes and cases with stabbed her from the back and fled the scene. The woman was rushed to hospital where she provided policemen with information about the suspect. A case was filed and a search is on for him.

Separately, police arrested an Arab man accused of attempting raping an Asian woman inside an apartment she had rented for him, said security sources. The woman had filed a complaint saying that she had rented a Salmiya apartment and subleased it to five Arab men. She added that a few days later, one of them called her claiming that the air-conditioner had malfunctioned and needs repairs. She added that on going to the place, he was alone and immediately attempted to rape her, but she managed to escape.