Saudi Arabia has executed 47 people for terrorism, including the prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Most of those executed on Saturday were involved in a series of attacks carried out by al-Qaida from 2003-06, the interior ministry said.
It also detained hundreds of members of its Shi'ite minority after protests in 2011-13, during which several policemen were killed in shooting and petrol bomb attacks. Several of those held had been sentenced to death.
The interior ministry statement began with Koranic verses justifying the use of execution and state television showed footage of the aftermath of al-Qaida attacks in the last decade. Saudi grand mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh appeared on television soon after to describe the executions as just.
Iran's Shia leadership has warned that executing Nimr "woul
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