Saudi Arabia has executed the top Shia cleric Ayatollah Nimr al-Nimr along with 47 Sunnis it accused of terrorism.
The state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) and state television reported the executions on Saturday, citing the kingdom’s Interior Ministry. According to the ministry, those executed had been found guilty of being in “terrorism” and adopting a “takfiri” ideology. All on the list of those killed are Saudi nationals except an Egyptian and a Chadian.
Saudi media said that the “executed Shia terrorist” was part of Iran and Hezbollah and supported a network that blew up the Khobar Towers in 1996 which killed 20 US soldiers. It added that the “Sunnis terrorists” benefited from a network that planned and executed an attack on the Saudi National Guard building in Riyadh in 1995.
The Saudi Interior Ministry did not elaborate on the method of execution, but said the convicts were executed in 12 cities across the country.
Ayatollah Nimr, a critic of the Riyadh regime, was shot by Saudi police and arrested in 2012 in the Qatif region of Shia-dominated Eastern Province, which was the scene of anti-regime demonstrations at the time.
He was charged with instigating unrest and undermining the kingdom’s security, making anti-government speeches and defending political prisoners. He had rejected all the charges as baseless.
In 2014, a Saudi court sentenced Sheikh Nimr to death, provoking widespread global condemnations. The sentence was upheld last March by the appeal court of Saudi Arabia.
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Amnesty International also criticized the process of Sheikh Nimr’s trial and said it views the charges against the cleric as his right to free speech.
The death ruling sparked angry reactions from international rights bodies as well as many nations, including Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan and India, where people staged large protest rallies and called for the release of Sheikh Nimr as well as all political detainees in the kingdom.
Last October, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also urged Saudi rulers to revoke the cleric’s death verdict.
