Saudi Arabia executed 47 people convicted of terrorism-related offenses throughout 12 cities on Saturday, including prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.
Al-Nimr had always been a critic of the Saudi government, jailed on a number of occasions previously for his involvement in protests, and was found guilty by the country’s Specialised Criminal Court in 2014 of crimes including calling for the collapse of the state and failing to pledge allegiance to the government.
Under Saudi Arabia’s reading of Islamic Sharia, such attacks are interpreted as “banditry”, which carries an automatic sentence of death followed by public display of bodies on gibbets.
The three other executed Shiites were Ali al-Rubh, who relatives said was a juvenile at the time of the crime for which he was convicted, Mohammed al-Shayoukh and Mohammed Suwaymil.
“The al-Saudi family executed today the holy warrior, the grand cleric Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, after a mock trial… a flagrant violation of human rights”, an obituary on the Houthis’ official Al Maseera website said.
Those executed were described as promoters of a “deviant” version of Islam, a phrase used by Saudi Arabia for al-Qaeda, Islamic State, and other militant groups.
The men – 45 Saudis, an Egyptian and a man from Chad – were killed behind closed doors in prisons across the country.
He was arrested in 2012, with the interior ministry describing him as an “instigator of sedition”.
On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi-Ansari condemned the cleric’s execution.
It said it held the United States and its allies directly responsible through their support for the Saudi government, and urged the global community and rights groups to condemn the execution.
The executions send a “strong and negative message”, he said.
The executions are Saudi Arabia’s first in 2016.
Hundreds of al-Nimr’s supporters protested in his hometown of al-Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia, in neighbouring Bahrain where police fired tear gas and bird shot, and as far away as northern India.
Saudi Arabia is now ruled by King Salman, who ascended to the monarchy in January 2015 after the death of King Abdullah.
In Beirut, Shi’ite shopkeeper Abu Ali Dimashq said he hoped Nimr’s death would prove “a victory against the Al Saud family, because this is the beginning of their end, God willing”.
Analysts have speculated that the execution of the four Shiites was partly to demonstrate to Saudi Arabia’s majority Sunni Muslims that the government did not differentiate between political violence committed by members of the two sects.
FAISAL Al NASSER/REUTERS Major General Mansour Al-Turki, a security spokesman from the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Interior, holds a news conference on the executions of 47 people in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
For his part, the Shiite lawmaker Kamil al-Zaidi, from State of Law political bloc, condemned the execution of Nimr and demanded the Iraqi government to implement executions against Arab and foreign terrorist who have been convicted earlier in Iraq without delay. Almost all executions carried out in Saudi Arabia are by beheading with a sword.