News / Politics

Nimr execution indicates Saudi monarchy nearing demise: Senior Iran MP

Saturday, 02 January 2016 11:36 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 03 January 2016 4:24 AM ]

Late prominent Saudi Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr

A senior Iranian legislator has condemned the execution of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr in Saudi Arabia, saying the move is a sign that the rule of Al Saud monarchy is reaching the end of the road.

“The execution of Sheikh Nimr and scores of others by the Al Saud government once again showed that there is nothing called freedom and respect for scholars and thinkers in Saudi Arabia, and there is essentially absolute dictatorship in the country,” said MP Alaeddin Boroujerdi on Saturday.

The lawmaker said the US, which offers total support to Saudi Arabia, shares responsibility for the killing of Sheikh Nimr.

Boroujerdi, who is the chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said Nimr’s execution would mark the start of a new wave of protests in Saudi Arabia.

"History has shown that those who confront religious scholars will see defeat and annihilation brought upon them."

Chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi

Spokesman for the Iranian Parliament’s presiding board Abdolreza Mesri said Iranian lawmakers will not remain silent in the face of the Saudi regime’s “inhumane and un-Islamic” move. He called on international rights organizations and world bodies to react to Al Saud’s atrocities.

Separately, Tehran’s Friday Prayers leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami said the Shia Muslim community in Saudi Arabia will make the ruling Al Saud regime rue Nimr’s execution, calling on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to adopt a stance against the crime.

Iranian university students are scheduled to stage a demonstration outside the Saudi Embassy in Tehran at 3 p.m. (1030 GMT) on Sunday to denounce the execution.

On Saturday, Saudi Arabia executed Sheikh Nimr along with 46 others in defiance of international calls for the release of the prominent Shia cleric and other jailed political dissidents in the country.

Sheikh Nimr, a critic of the Riyadh regime, was shot and arrested by Saudi police in 2012 in the Qatif region of Saudi-Arabia’s Shia-majority Eastern Province, which was the scene of peaceful anti-regime demonstrations at the time.

He was charged with instigating unrest and undermining the kingdom’s security. He had denied the charges as baseless.

In 2014, a Saudi court sentenced Sheikh Nimr to death, provoking widespread global condemnations. The sentence was upheld last March by the appeals court of Saudi Arabia.

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