MOSCOW/ BEIRUT (Sputnik) – Iranian Foreign Ministry has summoned the Saudi charge d'affaires in Tehran over the execution of a prominent Shiite cleric in Saudi Arabia, the Lebanese Al Mayadeen TV broadcast Saturday.
Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr was arrested by the Saudi authorities in 2012 during protests in the east of the country. Two years later, he was sentenced to death on charges of inciting hatred, disobedience to the king and the establishment of a terrorist cell with the aim to attack law enforcement personnel.
Earlier on Saturday, the Shiite preacher was put to death alongside 46 other convicts, most of them Saudi nationals.
The execution was lashed out by Tehran. In particular, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari accused Saudi Arabia of supporting terrorism and executing its opponents in response to al-Nimr’s execution.
