Saudi Arabia executes 47 people for terror acts

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani says Saudi Arabia’s execution of prominent Shia cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, was in line with Riyadh’s sectarian policies which aim to spread terrorism and extremism.

Ayatollah Khamenei described Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr as a “martyr” who acted peacefully.

Iranian protestors stormed the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran on Saturday and set fire to it, after the execution of a Shiite cleric who was an outspoken critic against the kingdom.

The cleric was one of 47 executed across Saudi Arabia on Saturday for terrorism-related offences.

Iran has strongly condemned Saudi Arabia’s execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent opposition Shiite cleric.

Nimr, 56, was a key figure in the protests that erupted among Sunni Saudi Arabia’s Shiite minority in 2011, inspired by the Arab spring revolts elsewhere in the region.

Under Saudi Arabia’s reading of Islamic law, such attacks are interpreted as “banditry”, carrying an automatic sentence of death followed by public display of bodies on gibbets.

The foreign ministry in Tehran said the Sunni kingdom would pay a high price for its action, and it summoned the Saudi charge d’affaires in Tehran in protest.

The BBC World Service reported that Adel al-Dhubaiti, who was convicted over the shooting, was executed. The opinion of Sistani, based in the Shi’ite holy city of Najaf south of Baghdad, carries weight with millions of Shi’ites in Iraq and across the region, including in Saudi Arabia. We reaffirm our calls on the Government of Saudi Arabia to respect and protect human rights, and to ensure fair and transparent judicial proceedings in all cases, USA state spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.

Protesters in Iran, angered by al-Nimr’s execution, broke into the Saudi Embassy early Sunday, setting fires and throwing papers from the roof.

The demonstrators in Tehran hurled petrol bombs and stormed the Saudi embassy before being cleared out by police.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Sheikh said in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency that the executions announced Saturday were in line with Islamic law and the need to safeguard the kingdom’s security.

Hours later, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi said 40 people had been arrested on suspicion of taking part in the embassy attack and investigators were pursuing other suspects, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

Khamenei called the killing of Nimr “a political mistake by the Saudi government” which would “haunt its politicians”.

The Times reported police arrived to the scene, dispersed protesters and put out fires.

Despite the focus on Nimr, the executions seemed mostly aimed at discouraging jihadism in Saudi Arabia, where dozens have died in the past year in attacks by Sunni militants.

Of the 47 executed, 45 were Saudi nationals, one was from Chad and another from Egypt. Four were Shiites.