Saudi Arabia executes top Shia cleric

Along with 47 others over terrorist charges mostly carried out by the Al Qaeda from 2003-06

Tehran: The Iranian government and religious leaders across the Middle East have condemned Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Shia cleric along with 46 others and warned of repercussions that could bring down the country’s royal family.

Saudi Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. Pic/AFP

Councils and clerics in Iran, Yemen and Lebanon said the killing of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr would prompt widespread anger. The Saudi grand mufti, Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, appeared on television soon after to describe the executions as just. “The Saudi government supports terrorists and takfiri (radical Sunni) extremists, while executing and suppressing critics inside the country,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hossein Jaber Ansari said.

Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a leading Iranian cleric, said repercussions would bring down the Saudi ruling family. “This pure blood will stain the collar of the House of Saud and wipe them from the pages of history. The crime of executing Sheikh Nimr is part of a criminal pattern by this treacherous family … the Islamic world is expected to cry out and denounce this infamous regime as much as it can,” he said.

In Bahrain, police fired teargas at several dozen people protesting against the cleric’s execution, a witness said. The simultaneous execution of 47 people on security grounds was the biggest such event in Saudi Arabia since the 1980 killing of 63 jihadi rebels who seized Mecca’s Grand Mosque in 1979.

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