SHAFAQNA – Saudi Arabia said Saturday it has executed 47 prisoners, including Shiite cleric and activist Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.
Al-Nimr was a central figure in Shiite protests that erupted in 2011 as part of the Islamic Awakening, and carrying out his execution may spark new unrest among the OPEC powerhouse’s Shiite minority.
A man of truth and justice, Sheikh al-Nimr spoke for all religious minorities, and all ethnicities as his stand was for all people to live according to the Holy Scriptures.
The cleric’s name was among a list of the 47 carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency. It cited the Interior Ministry for the information. Saudi state television also reported the executions.
Saudi Arabia carried out at least 157 executions in 2015, with beheadings reaching their highest level in the kingdom in two decades, according to several advocacy groups that monitor the death penalty worldwide.
Husain Abdulla, executive director of regional campaign group Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain, said: “Saudi Arabia was able to commit the crime of executing Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr because it felt the international community is silent on its gross human rights violations records and its slave like treatment to the women and men of Saudi Arabia. In the strongest possible terms we condemns the execution of Sheikh Nimr Alnimr. He was innocent and his execution is the example of injustice of the justice system in Saudi Arabia.”