Saturday, January 2, 2016

Saudi Arabia starts off 2016 with 47 executions, including that of a top Shiite cleric

Do you think Obama will be bleating about it as a jihad recruitment tool? I don't.

Saudi Arabia executes 47 terrorism convicts
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia executed 47 people on Saturday for terrorism, mostly suspected Al-Qaeda members, Interior Ministry said in a statement broadcast on state television.

State television showed footage of the aftermath of Al-Qaeda attacks in the last decade, media reported.

Saudi Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Al-Sheikh appeared on television soon after to describe the executions as just, Reuters reported.


The 47 men were based across 12 regions in the kingdom, the ministry statement added.

They were convicted of plotting and carrying out terrorist attacks targeting civilians and security forces in Saudi Arabia and neighboring countries, Al Arabiya reported.

Prominent Shiite cleric Nimr Al-Nimr was among those executed, the ministry said.


Iran says Saudi Arabia will 'pay a high price' for execution of Shiite cleric
Tehran (AFP) - Saudi Arabia will pay "a high price" for executing prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday, Iran's foreign ministry said.

Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari strongly condemned the execution, which came after his Shiite country repeatedly asked its Sunni-ruled rival to pardon the cleric.

"The Saudi government supports terrorist movements and extremists, but confronts domestic critics with oppression and execution... the Saudi government will pay a high price for following these policies," he said, quoted by the official IRNA news agency.

Nimr, 56, was a driving force of the protests that broke out in 2011 in Eastern Province, where the Shiite minority of Saudi Arabia complains of marginalisation.

"The execution of a figure like Sheikh al-Nimr, who had no means to follow his political and religious goals but through speaking out, merely shows the extent of irresponsibility and imprudence," said Ansari.

For its part, the Basij student militia connected to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards called for a demonstration on Sunday afternoon in front of the Saudi embassy in Tehran.