Saudi Execution of Sheikh Nimr Widely Condemned by Clerics

Hours after Saudi Arabia announced it has executed Sheikh Nimr, many religious figures in Iran and elsewhere began to voice anger at the Riyadh regime’s shocking move.

Among the 47 people executed in Saudi Arabia on Saturday were four Shiite Muslims, including Sheikh Nimr, accused of shooting policemen during anti-government protests in recent years.

The executions took place in 12 cities in Saudi Arabia, four prisons using firing squads and the others beheading. The bodies were then hanged from gibbets in the most severe form of punishment available in the kingdom's law.

The Shiite leader’s execution prompted senior Iranian cleric Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi to label the Al Saud’s action “a heinous crime”, saying that Muslims will take “revenge” for his death.

Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi noted that the US had been definitely informed of Saudi Arabia’s decision beforehand.

In separate comments, Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani said Sheikh Nimr’s execution “awakens the Islamic world and paves the way for the Saudi regime’s downfall.”

The representative of Bahrain’s Shiite cleric Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Ahmad Qassim in Tehran also attributed the execution to the internal rift within the Al Saud’s royal family.

In the meantime, clerics in the seminary of Iran’s city of Qom announced cancellation of classes on Sunday in protest at Sheikh Nimr’s execution. They have also planned a demonstration on Sunday morning.

Sheikh Nimr was detained in July 2012 on charges of delivering anti-regime speeches and defending political prisoners.

His arrest sparked widespread protests in the Arab country, leaving several people dead.

In 2014, a Saudi judge found him guilty of “sedition” and sentenced him to death.

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