Three jailed for manslaughter over deadly Mangaf fire

Kuwaiti firefighters and security forces gather outside a building which was ingulfed by fire, in Mangaf, on June 12, 2024. More than 35 people were killed and dozens injured in a building fire in an area heavily populated with foreign workers in Kuwait, the interior ministry said. – Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

KUWAIT: The misdemeanors court on Tuesday sentenced two Kuwaitis and an Egyptian to three years in prison, convicting them of manslaughter over a Mangaf building fire in which 46 Indian and three Filipino workers were killed. The case was treated as a misdemeanor and not a crime by the prosecution since the fire, which also injured dozens of others, was not intentional. The tragedy happened in June last year.

The court also sentenced two other men to one year in jail for perjury after lying to the court and jailed four others for giving shelter to a suspect wanted in the case. The six convicts are three Indians and three Egyptians. The rulings are not final as they are expected to be challenged by the prosecution and defense lawyers as well. The fire was the second-deadliest in Kuwait after a fire at a Jahra wedding tent killed 57 people, mostly women and children, in 2009.

The fire broke out at dawn in an apartment building housing 196 all-male expat workers. Most of the victims were reported to have succumbed after inhaling smoke as the door leading to the roof was locked by company officials, and as a majority of them were still sleeping. Some of the workers threw themselves from the six-storey building to escape the blaze.

An official investigation later said the fire resulted from an electrical short circuit on the ground floor. It spread quickly in the building because of partitions made of inflammable material. HH the Amir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah ordered cash payments to the relatives of each victim.