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Saudi Arabia executed 47 people convicted of terrorism Saturday, including prominent Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr, prompting condemnation throughout the Middle East.

Nimr has been an outspoken advocate for Shiite rights in Saudi Arabia; he also supported opposition protests in the Shiite-majority Eastern Province, reports NPR's Leila Fadel.

Members of Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority say they're treated as second-class citizens in the Sunni kingdom.

Iran, which supports Shiite fighters in Yemen who are clashing with a Saudi-backed force there, strongly condemned the executions.

, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari says the execution of Nimr, "who had no tool but preaching his ideas to promote his political and religious objectives, proves nothing but the depth of irrationality and irresponsibility of the Saudi officials."


Ansari also said that Saudi Arabia will "pay dearly" for it actions, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.

Reporting on the wider reactions to the executions, NPR's Peter Kenyon says:


The executions took place at a dozen prisons, 

, which says that in most locations, the prisoners were beheaded. Their bodies were then displayed "in the most severe form of punishment available in the kingdom's Sharia Islamic law," the news agency says.  Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Saudi Arabia executed 47 people convicted of terrorism Saturday, including prominent Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr, prompting condemnation throughout the Middle East.


Saudi Arabia's killing of leading Shiite cleric and 46 others sparks outcry

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