Kuwait's Sheikh Talal Nasser al-Sabah has begged for mercy from his family after being sentenced to death for drug smuggling. The sheikh, who is in his fifties, was caught by Kuwaiti police with 10kg (22lb) of cocaine and 165lb of hashish and it is rumoured he believed that being a relative of Kuwait's rulers would protect him. It is the first time a member of a Gulf royal family has been sentenced to death. The royal was also being found guilty of laundering the proceeds and of illegal possession of two pistols and a shotgun. When sentencing him, Judge Humoud al-Mutwatah said he had "willingly walked the path of evil" and deserved no mercy. The trial was seen by many as a test for the impartiality of the law in a case where Talal's relative, the Emir, could pardon him. The sheikh was the nephew of a previous Emir of Kuwait, Jaber al-Sabah, who died in 2006, and is one of hundreds of members of the huge ruling family. However, Sheik al-Sabah has announced in the Kuwaiti press that he has appealed to the Emir to grant a pardon. If he is pardoned, the decision risks upsetting Kuwaiti politicians, who have some powers to hold the ruling family accountable. The conviction was not Sheikh al-Sabah's first run-in with the law. In 1991 he was arrested by Egyptian police and charged with smuggling heroin, which he claimed was for personal use. Sheikh al-Sabah continues to deny that he is a drug dealer and said that he has left his fate to the Emir. Speaking from prison, he told Kuwaiti newspaper al-Jareeda: "I am drug-addicted and I am getting cured. I don't deal. I don't know whether Kuwaiti society is satisfied with the ruling of the judiciary or not. But it is in the hands of the Emir."