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Saudi Arabia executes prominent Shiite cleric and 46 others in 12 cities Saudi Arabia executes prominent Shiite cleric and 46 others in 12 cities
(about 4 hours later)
BEIRUT — Prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr was among 47 people executed Saturday by Saudi Arabia, triggering an angry response from across the Shiite world, including the kingdom’s archenemy, Iran. BEIRUT — Saudi Arabia on Saturday executed a prominent Shiite cleric who played a key role in protests against the kingdom’s Sunni royal family, igniting sectarian tensions across the already inflamed region and jeopardizing a new burst of U.S. diplomacy aimed at tamping down conflicts in the Middle East.
The official Saudi Press Agency listed Nimr’s name among thosewho were killed in the capital Riyadh and 12 other cities. Some were beheaded, others were killed by firing squads, according to Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry. Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, 56, was among a group of 47 people put to death in 12 different cities around the country, either by firing squad or beheading, according to a statement from Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry.
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. Most of those executed were Sunnis accused of participating in Al Qaeda attacks in the kingdom. Nimr, however, was one of four Shiites put to death for their political activism, and he was the leading figure in the anti-government demonstrations that swept the mostly Shiite east of the country in 2011, inspired by the Arab Spring protests taking place elsewhere in the region.
The execution risks stirring renewed unrest among Shiites in the kingdom and drew an immediate harsh response from Iran, which has warned in the past that carrying out the death sentence on Nimr could cost Saudi Arabia dearly. The death sentence was carried out despite widespread international appeals for clemency and repeated warnings from the kingdom’s arch- enemy Iran that there would be consequences if the hugely popular cleric were killed.
[Sectarianism comes back to bite Saudi Arabia] Predictably, Shiites around the world expressed outrage, including Iran, potentially complicating a sudden surge of diplomacy spearheaded by the United States aimed at bringing peace to the troubled region, according to Toby Matthiesen, an expert on Saudi Arabia at the University of Oxford.
It could also ignite unrest in neighboring Bahrain, where widespread protests among the country’s Shiite majority against the Sunni royal family were quelled by Saudi military intervention in 2011. Police in a village west of Bahrain’s capital, Manama, fired tear gas to disperse several dozen people who took to the streets Saturday to protest Nimr’s execution, Reuters reported, citing eyewitnesses. “Nimr had become a household name amongst Shiite Muslims around the world. Many had thought his execution would be a red line, and would further inflame sectarian tensions,” he said. “So this will complicate a whole range of issues, from the Syrian crisis to Yemen.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry swiftly condemned the execution, calling it “the depth of imprudence and irresponsibility” on the part of the Saudi government. Saudi Arabia and Iran are backing rival sides in Syria’s war, and their enmity already risks derailing a diplomatic effort led by the United States and Russia to convene peace talks between the factions in Geneva later this month.
“The Saudi government will pay a heavy price for adopting such policies,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari, according to the semi-official Fars news agency. The two feuding powers also support opposing sides in the war in Yemen and more broadly find themselves in opposition in the deeply divided politics of the mixed Sunni-Shiite nations of Iraq and Lebanon.
Nimr’s brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, pledged on his Twitter account that the pro-democracy movement among Saudi Shiites will continue. The Obama administration’s hopes that the conclusion last summer of an agreement limiting Iran’s nuclear deal would help bridge the sectarian divide between Tehran and its biggest Arab ally were further diminished by the eruption of fury that followed Nimr’s death.
Anti-Saudi demonstrations were held in several Iranian cities, including Mashad, where protesters set fire to the Saudi consulate. Iran’s Foreign Ministry slammed the execution, warning that there would be repercussions.
“The Saudi government will pay a heavy price for adopting such policies,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari, calling the execution “the depth of imprudence and irresponsibility” on the part of the Saudi government, according to Iranian news agencies.
Iran summoned the Saudi charge d’affaires in Tehran to complain about the execution, and Saudi Arabia reciprocated by calling in the Iranian ambassador in Riyadh to protest the “hostile” remarks made by Iranian officials.
The execution also triggered renewed unrest in both Saudi Arabia and neighboring Bahrain, after years of calm following the suppression of the demonstrations in 2011.
Activists from both countries used Twitter and other social media accounts to appeal for a new uprising. In Qatif, hundreds of people took to the streets to protest, and Saudi Arabia expanded patrols and bolstered checkpoints to deter further upheaval, according to a Qatif activist, who asked not to be named because he fears for his safety.
The Nimr family issued a statement expressing shock and dismay at the execution, and also urging “restraint and self control” among Nimr’s followers.
His brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, pledged on his Twitter account that the pro-democracy movement will endure.
“Wrong, misled and mistaken [are] those who think that the killing will keep us from our rightful demands,” he tweeted after the execution was announced.“Wrong, misled and mistaken [are] those who think that the killing will keep us from our rightful demands,” he tweeted after the execution was announced.
In Bahrain, where widespread demonstrations by the country’s Shiite majority against the ruling Sunni royal family were quelled by the intervention of Saudi troops in 2011, there were reports of scattered protests in several Shiite towns and villages. Videos posted on YouTube by Bahraini activists showed hundreds of people, some of them wearing T-shirts featuring the bearded cleric’s face, marching through the streets in at least four locations.
Nimr had long served as the voice of Saudi Arabia’s widely discriminated- against Shiite minority, but he shot to prominence during the 2011 protests, publicly articulating the sentiments not only of Shiites but many others in the region demanding change after decades of authoritarian rule.
He had consistently advocated non-violence and his views transcended the Sunni-Shiite divide, said Maryam Al-Khawaja, a Bahrain human rights activist with the Gulf Center for Human Rights, who lives in exile in Denmark.
“He said Sunnis and Shiites should unite, and that anyone who supports the oppressors should be condemned,” she said, citing a 2012 speech Nimr delivered in which he condemned both Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is from the Shiite-affiliated Alawite sect and is backed by Iran, and the region’s Sunni authoritarian leaders, including the Saudi royal family.
“This was a big part of why he became problematic for the Saudi regime, because he refused to abide by the sectarian discourse that is basically enforced on everyone,” she said.
Nimr was arrested by Saudi security forces in 2012, after being shot in the legs during a car chase. He had been charged with “instigating unrest and undermining the kingdom’s security,” as well as delivering speeches against the government and defending political prisoners.
[Sectarianism comes back to bite Saudi Arabia]
Condemnations also poured in from other Shiite figures and organizations around the region. Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement said it held the United States and its allies responsible for Nimr’s execution because “they are giving direct protection to the Saudi regime.”
“This crime will remain a black mark that will plague the Saudi regime, which has been committing massacres since its inception,” it said in a statement.
In Iraq, there was an outpouring of anger from Shiite leaders and politicians, with the influential Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr calling on Shiites in Iraq and around the region to to protest the execution. He told Iraqis to take their demonstrations to the newly reopened Saudi Embassy in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, which welcomed a new Saudi ambassador to Iraq only on Friday for the first time in nearly 25 years.
Iraq’s Sumeria television channel later reported that Shiites were staging protests in the Shiite city of Karbala, demanding that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi close the Saudi Embassy in Baghdad.
Abadi condemned the execution, but offered no immediate response. Yemen’s Houthi rebel movement also issued a condemnation on its website.
[In legacy of a revered martyr, Saudi Shiites find sustenance][In legacy of a revered martyr, Saudi Shiites find sustenance]
Condemnations also began pouring in from Shiite figures and organizations around the region, with a prominent Iranian cleric predicting that repercussions of the execution would herald an end to the Saudi royal family. The advocacy group Amnesty International criticized all of the executions, including those of the accused Al Qaeda operatives, saying those killed had not been given fair trials. Nimr’s execution, in particular, suggested the Saudi authorities “are using the death penalty, in the name of counter terror, to settle scores and crush dissidents,” Amnesty International said in a statement.
“I have no doubt that this pure blood will stain the collar of the House of Saud and wipe them from the pages of history,” Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts and a Friday prayer leader, was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency, according to Reuters. The United States, which had not called on Saudi Arabia to refrain from executing the cleric, offered no immediate comment on the implementation of the sentence.
In a statement, Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement said it held the United States and its allies responsible for Nimr’s execution, because they are “giving direct protection to the Saudi regime.” Nimr’s nephew, Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, was sentenced last year to death by crucifixion for participating in the protests while he was 16 or 17 years old, also drawing widespread international condemnation.
The execution “will destroy the Saudi dynasty’s injustice,” the statement said. “This crime will remain a black mark that will plague the Saudi regime, which has been committing massacres since its inception.” Saudi Arabia has carried out at least 157 beheadings in the past year, a record number according to human rights groups.
In Iraq, there was an outpouring of anger from Shiite leaders and politicians, with the influential Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr calling on Shiites in Iraq and around the region to take to the streets to protest the execution. He told Iraqis to take their demonstrations to the newly reopened Saudi Embassy in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, which welcomed a new Saudi ambassador to Iraq Friday for the first time in nearly 25 years. Mustafa Salim in Baghdad and Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report.
Iraq’s Sumaria television network later reported that Shiites were staging protests in the Shiite city of Karbala, Iraq, demanding that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi close the Saudi embassy.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels also denounced the execution on their website, and the Lebanese Supreme Shiite Council, the country’s top Shiite religious authority, called it a “grave mistake.”
[Saudi Shiites worry about backlash from Yemen war]
Iran had earlier warned Saudi Arabia on several occasions not to go ahead with the death sentence, first handed down by a court in October 2014.
“Saudi Arabia will pay a heavy price for the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said after an appeals court upheld the sentence last October.
Leading Shiite figures around the world had also urged Saudi Arabia not to execute the cleric, including the widely influential Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who lives in the Iraqi city of Najaf, and the secretary general of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia, Hasan Nasrallah.
State television also reported the executions, posting mug shots of all those who were executed while playing solemn music, the Associated Press reported.
Nimr was arrested by Saudi security forces in 2012, after being shot in the legs during a car chase in the mostly Shiite eastern province of Qatif, where the protests had been concentrated.
He had been charged with “instigating unrest and undermining the kingdom’s security,” as well as delivering speeches against the government and defending political prisoners.
His nephew, Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, was sentenced last year to death by crucifixion for participating in the protests when he was 16 or 17 years old, also drawing widespread international condemnation.
Saudi Arabia has carried out at least 157 beheadings in the past year, a record number according to human rights groups. Most of the 47 executed Saturday had been convicted for participating in al-Qaeda-related attacks in the past decade, the AP said. Two were citizens of Egypt and Chad, and the rest were Saudi nationals.
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