News / Saudi Arabia

Saudi regime forces kill Sheikh Nimr’s cousins in Qatif: Report

Tuesday, 28 March 2017 4:33 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 28 March 2017 5:26 PM ]

This picture shows bullet marks on a sedan belonging to the slain cousins of executed prominent Saudi Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr in the Qatif region of Saudi Arabia’s Shia-majority Eastern Province. (Photo by Duraz Youth Movement)

Saudi regime forces have reportedly shot and killed two first cousins of prominent Saudi Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, whom the Al Saud regime executed last year in a futile attempt to silence political critics and pro-democracy campaigners in the oil-rich kingdom.

Local witness, requesting anonymity, said Saudi soldiers recently raided the farming lands of Sheikh Nimr’s relatives in al-Rames area of Awamiyah village in the Shia-majority Eastern Province, starting clashes with the owners and farm hands, London-based and Arabic-language Nabaa television news network reported.

Several people were reportedly killed and injured by Al Saud regime forces' gunshots.

Two of Nimr’s cousins, identified as Muhammed and Muqdad, were among the slain victims.

On January 2, 2016, Saudi Arabia executed Sheikh Nimr along with 46 other people in defiance of international calls for the release of the distinguished Shia religious figure.

The clergyman had been arrested in 2012 in the Qatif region of Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, which was the scene of peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations at the time.

He had been charged with instigating unrest and undermining the kingdom’s security. He had rejected the charges as baseless and unfounded.

In 2014, a Saudi court sentenced the clergyman to death, provoking widespread global condemnations. Back then, the UK-based rights body Amnesty International called the sentence “appalling,” saying the verdict should be quashed since it was politically motivated.

International human rights organizations have lashed out at Saudi Arabia for failing to address the rights situation in the kingdom. They say Saudi Arabia has persistently implemented repressive policies that stifle freedom of expression, association and assembly.

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