Saudi Arabia executes prominent Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr
Saudi Arabia has executed 47 people for terrorism, including a leading Shia dissident cleric.
The execution on Saturday morning of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a staunch opponent of the ruling Al Saudi family, has further stirred sectarian tensions in the Gulf and triggered threats from regional rival Iran.
The Iranian foreign ministry accused Saudi Arabia of supporting terrorist movements and extremists abroad while confronting domestic critics with oppression and execution. “The Saudi government will pay a high price for following these policies,” the Iranian foreign ministry said.
The executions took place in 12 locations across the kingdom on Saturday, a report on the official Saudi Press Agency said.
The statement said the accused, 45 Saudis, an Egyptian and a Chadian national, had been found guilt of carrying out and planning terrorist attacks on Saudis, foreigners, diplomats, security personnel and oil installations.
One activist said that 45 of those executed were al-Qaeda members and sympathisers, with the other two being Shia.
Many of the charges related to terrorist attacks that took place during the al-Qaeda insurgency that was put down a decade ago.
The charges laid out in the statement also seemed to refer to the claims previously made against Sheikh Nimr, namely “calling for the shooting of security forces by fire arms and throwing Molotov bombs.”
Shia activists have denied that Sheikh Nimr was involved in violent resistance, but many Saudis argue that his incitement against the government was tantamount to terrorism and often defend his death sentence.
The activist said the government probably executed Shia dissidents at the same time as al-Qaeda sympathisers to back its claim to be taking an even-handed approach in its crackdown down on terrorism. The Shia minority in the oil-rich eastern province has for years complained of discrimination.
The Saudi Press Agency report, citing the Koran, said: “The recompense of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and do mischief in the land is only that they shall be killed or crucified or their hands and their feet be cut off from opposite sides, or be exiled from the land.”
The mass execution is likely to revive international condemnation of the harsh judicial system of this western ally.
A further deterioration in bilateral relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran comes as proxy battles between the two rumble on through the Middle East.
Talks in Geneva last month to bring an end to the war in Yemen failed to find a resolution, condemning the country to further violence as a Saudi-led coalition tries to push back Iran-allied Houthi militias and reinstate the Riyadh-backed government of Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
The Syrian civil war pits Iran-allied president, Bashar al-Assad, against rebels backed by Riyadh and other Gulf states.
The execution of Sheikh Nimr surprised observers who had assumed that the government would refrain from signing his death warrant for fear of stoking sectarian tensions in the eastern province and neighbouring Bahrain, where the Shia majority continue pro-democracy protests against the Sunni Al Khalifa royal family.
Shia Muslims marched through the eastern town of Qatif to protest Sheikh Nimr’s execution, according to reports. Demonstrations against the executions in a Shia village to the west of the capital Manama were also quelled by riot police on Saturday.
In Bahrain police fired tear gas at protesters. Demonstrators carrying pictures of the cleric, Nimr al-Nimr, faced security forces in a stand-off in the Shia Muslim village of Abu-Saiba, west of the capital Manama, Reuters reported.