London : Saudi Arabia has executed 47 people in a day in links with terrorism including prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.
According to The Guardian, most of those executed on Saturday were involved in a series of attacks launched by al-Qaeda from 2003 to 2006, the interior ministry said.
Earlier, Iran had warned that executing Nimr “would cost Saudi Arabia dearly”.
In October 2015, Saudi Arabia’s supreme court had rejected an appeal against the death sentence on Nimr, who had called for pro-democracy demonstrations that sparked sparked protests in 2012, killing three people.
Nimr had long been regarded as the most vocal Shia leader in the eastern Saudi province of Qatif, willing to publicly criticise the ruling al-Saud family and call for elections. (ANI)