Posted on 01/02/2016 10:36:02 AM PST by Kaslin
Cairo (dpa) - Saudi Arabia on Saturday came under blistering criticism from the region's Shiites shortly after it executed a top Shiite cleric known for his activism against the Sunni government.
Nimr al-Nimr was among 47 people the Saudi government said it had executed earlier on Saturday after their convictions on terrorism-related charges.
Iran, Saudi Arabia's regional Shiite rival, criticized al-Nimr's execution, saying it was politically and religiously motivated.
"Instead of focusing on [Islamic State] terrorists threatening the region and the whole world, the Saudis execute a prominent figure like al-Nimr," Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Jaber Ansari said, referring to the radical Sunni militia mainly active in Syria and Iraq.
Al-Nimr, a Saudi national, repeatedly demanded increased rights for the Shiite minority, who make up some 15 per cent of the Saudi population.
Saudi Arabia's Shiites complain of discrimination, saying they often struggle to get senior government jobs and benefits available to other citizens.
The government has repeatedly denied the claims and said that al-Nimr had followed "in the footsteps of the devil" in an Interior Ministry statement cited by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
"Through his terrorist acts, innocent blood was shed with the goal to shake stability in this country," it said.
Lebanon's pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement called al-Nimr's execution an "assassination" based "on flimsy pretexts and corrupt court rulings" in a statement aired by its broadcaster, al-Manar.
Iraq's influential Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr meanwhile called for "angry" protests in his country and the Gulf against the Saudi government.
Saudi authorities' execution of al-Nimr will lead to the overthrow of the kingdom's Sunni rulers, former Iraqi Shiite prime minister Nuri al-Maliki predicted.
Federica Mogherini, the European Union's foreign policy chief, said that al-Nimr's killing specifically had "the potential of enflaming further the sectarian tensions that already bring so much damage to the entire region, with dangerous consequences."
Al-Nimr's backers in Sunni-ruled Bahrain, which has a Shiite majority, staged protests, with people chanting slogans against the Saudi and Bahraini governments, witnesses said.
Some protesters clashed with Bahraini police, the witnesses added, without reporting casualties.
Al-Nimr, 55, was detained several times. His last arrest, in 2012, triggered days of violent protests in his hometown, Qatif, in mostly Shiite eastern Saudi Arabia.
In October, a top Saudi court confirmed a death sentence against al-Nimr for inciting sectarian strife in the mostly Sunni kingdom.
Saudi Arabia defended the executions of al-Nimr and the 46 others.
"When implementing court rulings, the kingdom does not pay attention to any threats or comments," spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry, Mansour al-Turki, told reporters in the capital Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia's top state-appointed cleric, Abdel-Aziz al-Sheikh, also advocated the executions, saying they were "fair and aimed to boost security."
The executions were carried out in 12 different areas of the kingdom, the Interior Ministry said in a statement, quoted by SPA.
The statement said the executed were found guilty of carrying out different attacks against security and civil installations as well as killing security personnel and civilians in Saudi Arabia.
The ministry said those executed - 45 Saudis, an Egyptian and a Chadian - had been convicted on various charges including terrorism, incitement to violence and espousing militant ideology.
The executions were carried out after death sentences against the inmates were confirmed by the country's top court and ratified by King Salman, SPA said.
The executions were the first this year in Saudi Arabia, which is believed to have executed 137 people on various offences last year.
Beheading is a common method of execution in Saudi Arabia, which applies a strict interpretation of Islamic law. The country ranks among the top nations for executions carried out.
“I didn’t know the house of Saud was so full of shiite..”
It was bound to hit the fan, Soony or later.
One of these days, Putin’s friends will weigh in on this Saudi Shi’iteiness.
I still can't believe the idiot Bush left Al Sadr alive, when we had him surrounded inside a mosque.
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