UPDATED: Saudi Arabia Executes Sheikh Nimr & 47 Others

KABUL: (MEP) Saudi Interior Ministry said in an evil act that it has executed prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr along with 47 others.

prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-NimrKABUL: (MEP) Saudi Interior Ministry said in an evil act that it has executed prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr along with 47 others.

A statement released by the Saudi Interior Ministry announced the executions on Saturday, state-run news agency, SPA reported.

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 a vocal supporter of the mass pro-democracy protests against Riyadh that erupted in Eastern Province in 2011, where a Shia majority has long complained of marginalization.

Sheikh Nimr 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.

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 simultaneous execution of 47 people on security grounds was the biggest mass execution for such offences in Saudi Arabia since the 1980 killing of 63 jihadist rebels who seized Mecca’s Grand Mosque in 1979.

 

 

 

 

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