Saudi Arabia: Al-Nimr posed Shia challenge, most of 47 were Sunni extremists

Sheikh Nimr Baqir Al-Nimr, who was executed on 2 January, had been convicted after what advocacy group Amnesty International called “a political and grossly unfair trial” at the Specialised Criminal Court. US and other western officials have complained of a lack of due process. Along with the other Shia condemned to death, the cleric was arrested (and shot in the leg) in July 2012, in the wake of demonstrations in Eastern Province that threatened to extend the ‘Arab Spring’ to Saudi Arabia.