Martyrdom Anniv. of Sheikh Al-Nimr Commemorated by Saudi Opposition Groups in Iran

Translated by Staff

Saudi opposition groups in the Arabian Peninsula commemorated the seventh anniversary of the martyrdom of prominent Saudi Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr and the martyrs of Hijaz.

The activities of the memorial program, held under the motto “Martyr of Dignity”, were inaugurated in the holy city of Qom in Iran in Imam al-Sadiq [AS] Complex. The event included a speech by the representative of the Nujaba Movement, Sayyed Abbas al-Musawi, and representative of the Hijaz community in Iran, Sheikh Abdul Mohsen Al-Baqshi.

A number of Arab, Islamic and European countries, including Iraq, Yemen and others participated in the event that started Friday and will continue until January 10, 2023.

The group’s statement referred to the significance of the motto because it aims to define the Sheikh al-Nimr as the martyr of dignity.

They said that the senior cleric would always link dignity to martyrdom and believed that he would ultimately be martyred.

“Dignity is a sublime human right that no one has the right to take away from anyone,” the statement added.

It also criticized the Saudi rulers for oppression, killing and arresting people, dealing blows to religious values, and invading neighboring countries.

The statement further recalled “the execution crime committed by the Saudi regime on January 2, 2016.”

In the light of the event, the opposition groups said, “Gaining dignity requires demanding the legitimate rights that the Saudi regime has robbed, including freedom, equality and justice, and these will only be achieved under a state based on consensus among the people with all its components, in practice and not symbolically.”

Saudi authorities announced on January 2, 2016 that they had killed the 56-year-old cleric along with 46 other prisoners.

It brought a swift reaction in his hometown in eastern Saudi Arabia, where Shia Muslims complain of marginalization, in neighboring Bahrain, across the Middle East and as far away as northern India.

Back in 2014, a special court in Riyadh had sentenced him to death for trumped charges of “sedition”, “disobedience” and “bearing arms”.

The so-called supreme court in Saudi Arabia confirmed the death sentence against the Shia cleric on October 26, 2015.

Sheikh al-Nimr had vociferously called for democracy in the kingdom and rallied anti-regime protests, and his killing portended other gross human rights violations that the Riyadh regime did not shy away from perpetration in the following years.