Iraqi Killer of Kuwaiti Coast Guard Gets Reduced Term

Kuwait's appeals court Monday commuted the death sentence of an Iraqi fisherman who killed a coast guard to life imprisonment, according to the court verdict.

Taha Mahmud Sabhan was handed the death sentence by the lower court in November 2012 for killing a Kuwaiti coast guard in a shootout in January last year.

The shooting took place after an Iraqi fishing boat with Sabhan and seven others aboard crossed into Kuwaiti waters and refused to stop, according to Kuwait's interior ministry.

Two of the seven were handed three-year sentences by the court and a third, who is a minor, was jailed for a year. The remaining four received life terms in absentia after they fled.

But the appeals court on Monday commuted all the life terms to three years in jail and upheld the other sentences.

The sentences have to be reviewed by Kuwait's supreme court to become final.

Kuwait's coast guard often seizes Iraqi fishing boats and detains fishermen for illegally entering Kuwaiti waters.