MOSCOW, January 2 (Sputnik) — Saudi Arabia has executed 47 people convicted of terrorism, the country’s Interior Ministry announced in a statement Saturday.
Among those executed were prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr and an alleged al-Qaeda leader in Saudi Arabia, Faris Zahrani. Both men were sentenced to death in 2014.
The statement by the Saudi Interior Ministry noted that the majority of convicts were local nationals, according to Al-Arabiya. They were given a death sentence for alleged involvement in a string of terror attacks which al-Qaeda had claimed responsibility for that took place between 2003 and 2006.
The Sunni monarchy stepped up prosecution of terrorism-related crimes in early 2014 and published a list of groups considered terrorist organizations.
The human rights group Amnesty International said in November that Saudi Arabia executed at least 151 people in 2015, which is the highest recorded figure in 20 years.
