“The execution of Sheikh Nimr will definitely add another dark page to the pages of the Al Saud history,” Hojatoleslam Hossein Sobhani-Nia told the Tasnim News Agency on Saturday.

Riyadh has carried out the execution with the aim of ingratiating itself with “the hegemonic system, the US and the Zionist regime of Israel”, he stated.

The Iranian parliamentarian went on to say that the move will cost the Saudi regime dearly.

Saudi Arabia executed 47 prisoners on Saturday, including Sheikh Nimr, the Arab country’s interior ministry said in a statement.

Sheikh Nimr, a critic of the Riyadh regime, was shot by Saudi police and arrested in 2012 in the Qatif region of Shiite-dominated Eastern Province, which was the scene of peaceful anti-regime demonstrations at the time.

He 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.

In October 2015, a Saudi appeals court upheld the death sentence, referring his case to King Salman’s office.