Saudi Arabia executes 47 in one day

The 47 people were put to death after being convicted of terrorism offences, the interior ministry said.

Most of those executed on Saturday were involved in a series of attacks carried out by al-Qaida from 2003-06, according to the statement.

However, 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 arrested during the protests were also sentenced to death.

Saudi grand mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh appeared on television soon after the statement was released to describe the executions as just.

In October 2015 Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal against the death sentence passed earlier on Nimr, who had called for pro-democracy demonstrations.

The executions are Saudi Arabia’s first in 2016. At least 157 people were put to death last year, a big increase from the 90 people killed in 2014.

Iran’s foreign ministry has said that Saudi Arabia would “pay a high price” for executing the cleric.

The list of those executed the list does not include Nimr’s nephew, Ali al-Nimr, whose arrest at the age of 17 – and his alleged torture during detention – sparked condemnation from human rights groups and the United States.