Saudi Arabia executed 47 prisoners convicted of terrorism Saturday, including al-Qaeda militants and a prominent Shiite cleric who protested for political reform. The move prompted backlash from Muslim nations as well as human rights and advocacy groups.
The execution of cleric Nimr al-Nimr, 56, and a handful of other Shiite activists could incite sectarian unrest in the Middle East, where tensions remain high between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Saudi Arabia is a predominantly Sunni nation.
The death of the al-Qaeda militants raised the specter of revenge attacks. Al-Qaeda's Yemen affiliate last month threatened violence if their sentences were carried out, the Associated Press reported.
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of the Interior issued a statement that the 47 condemned men "were involved in a score of terrorist attacks which resulted in deaths of innocent lives and destruction of private, public and military properties," according to the Saudi Press Agency.
Amnesty International, a human rights organization, decried the death sentences for al-Nimr and other Shiite activists in November, saying "Saudi Arabian authorities are using the guise of counterterrorism to settle political scores."
In Iraq, Shiite political leader and cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called for demonstrations across the Gulf States to protest the execution of al-Nimr, Reuters reported.
Al-Nimr was a vocal critic of Bahrain’s monarchy, which forcibly suppressed protests in 2011 with the help of Saudi troops. Popular among disgruntled Shiite youth in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, al-Nimr never denied the political charges against him, but maintained he never carried weapons or called for violence, AP reported.
Al-Nimr's nephew, Ali al-Nimr, a juvenile when he was arrested, is also facing execution but wasn't on the list released Saturday. Amnesty International has complained bitterly about juveniles facing the death penalty in Saudi Arabia.
Jaberi Ansari, foreign ministry spokesman for Iran, a Shiite-majority nation, said the Saudi government "confronts domestic critics with oppression and execution. ... (It) will pay a high price for these policies," according to media reports.
In Lebanon, leading Shiite cleric Abdul-Amir Kabalan condemned al-Nimr’s execution, describing it as “a grave mistake that could have been avoided with a royal amnesty that would have helped reduce sectarian tensions in the region," AP reported.
Kabalan is deputy head of the influential Supreme Shiite Islamic Council that is the main religious body for Lebanon’s 1.2 million Shiites.
The Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah issued a statement calling al-Nimr’s execution an “assassination” and “ugly crime.”
Of the 47 executed, 45 were Saudi nationals, one was from Chad and another from Egypt. Four were Shiites.
One of those executed was a convicted terrorist involved in a 2004 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah that left nine dead. Another was Faris al-Shuwail, a leading ideologue in al-Qaeda’s Saudi branch who was arrested in August 2004 during a massive crackdown following the series of deadly attacks, AP reported.
The executions — by beheadings or shootings — took place in the capital, Riyadh, and 11 other cities and towns, according to the Saudi Arabian Interior Ministry.
Saudi Arabia carried out 157 executions in 2015, all after King Salman assumed the throne in January. There were 90 executions in 2014.
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