A Forum Held to Discuss Legal Aspects of Sheikh Nimr Execution

A forum was held in the holy city of Karbala, Iraq, on Sunday, January 31, to discuss the legal aspects of the execution of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr by the Riyadh regime.

Iraq’s Adam Center for Defending Rights and Freedoms held the program with the participation of academic scholars, legal experts and media persons, al-Naba news agency reported.

Ahmed Juwaid, the director of the center, said at the forum that the execution of Sheikh Nimr was a move made in reaction to the Saudi defeats in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Bahrain.

He noted that the move was widely condemned by religious and political figures and people across the Muslim world.

Heydar Hassan Kadhim, a professor at Karbala University’s Faculty of Law, underlined that Sheikh Nimr’s only crime was telling the truth and calling for freedom and rights.

He regretted that in Saudi Arabia, which claims its laws are consistent with international laws, freedom of speech is considered a crime deserving the death penalty.

Saudi Arabia’s execution of 47 prisoners, including Sheikh Nimr, on January 2 drew global condemnation.

The executions took place in 12 cities in Saudi Arabia, four prisons using firing squads and the others beheading. The bodies were then hanged from gibbets in the most severe form of punishment available in the kingdom’s law.

Sheikh Nimr had been detained in July 2012 on charges of delivering anti-regime speeches and defending political prisoners.