Saudi Arabia executes 47 on terrorism charge
Kingdom executes 47 people for terrorism, including prominent Shia cleric, as Amnesty International says executions highest level since 1995
Saudi Arabia executed 47 people on Saturday for terrorism, mostly suspected al-Qaeda members but also a prominent Shia Muslim cleric, the Interior Ministry said in a statement broadcast on state television.
The cleric, Nimr al-Nimr, was a driving force of the protests that broke out in 2011 in the Sunni-ruled kingdom's east, where the Shia minority complains of marginalisation.
But the list does not include Nimr's nephew, Ali al-Nimr, who was 17 when he was arrested following the protests.
Iran warned last year that executing Nimr would "cost Saudi Arabia dearly".
The ministry statement, carried by the official SPA news agency, said the 47 had been convicted of adopting the radical "takfiri" ideology, joining "terrorist organisations" and implementing various "criminal plots".
The list also includes Sunnis convicted of involvement in al-Qaeda attacks that killed Saudis and foreigners in the kingdom in 2003 and 2004.
The simultaneous execution of 47 people on security grounds was the biggest mass execution for such offences in Saudi Arabia since the 1980 killing of 63 jihadist rebels who seized Mecca's Grand Mosque in 1979.
The executions, Saudi Arabia's first in 2016, came as advocacy groups that monitor the death penalty claimed beheadings had reached their their highest level in the kingdom in two decades.
At least 157 people were put to death last year, a big increase from the 90 people killed in 2014.
Amnesty International said in November that at least 63 people had been executed since the start of the year for drug-related offences. That figure made for at least 40 per cent of the total number of executions in 2015, compared to less than four per cent for drug-related executions in 2010.
Amnesty said Saudi Arabia had exceeded its highest level of executions since 1995, when 192 executions were recorded.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...o-decades.html
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