Saudi Arabia executes top Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr

Rasa - Saudi Arabia has executed Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr along with 47 others in defiance of international calls for the release of the prominent Shia cleric and other jailed political dissidents in the kingdom.

News ID: 3751

Date: 02 January 2016 - 14:23

RNA - The state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) and state television reported the executions Saturday, citing the kingdom’s Interior Ministry.

According to the Saudi 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.

The Saudi Interior Ministry did not elaborate on the method to execute the convicts, but said they were executed Saturday in 12 cities across the country.

Sheikh 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 peaceful 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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