Hundreds of students have poured onto the streets of the southern Lebanese town of Nabatieh to express their anger at Saudi Arabia’s execution of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.
The students from different schools and universities took part in Wednesday’s demonstration to condemn the Al Saud regime’s killing of Sheikh Nimr, chanting slogans against Riyadh, Washington Israel.
Holding pictures of the clergyman, the protesters held a banner reading, “The blood of Sheikh al-Nimr will defeat the tyrants.”
The demonstrators also carried placards, reading “the awakening will not be suppressed,” in reference to peaceful anti-regime rallies that started in Saudi Arabia’s Shia-dominated Eastern Province in February 2011.
The Saudis have been demanding reforms, freedom of expression, release of political prisoners and an end to what they call religious discrimination against the region.
Saudi Arabia said on January 2 that it had executed Sheikh Nimr along with 46 others, causing international outrage and a serious escalation of tensions in the region.
Many countries such as Iran, the UK, Pakistan, India, Yemen, Bahrain and Germany have witnessed massive anti-Saudi rallies over the past few days.
Sheikh Nimr, an outspoken critic of the Riyadh regime, was arrested in 2012. He was charged with instigating unrest and undermining the kingdom’s security. He had rejected all the charges as baseless.
In 2014, a Saudi court sentenced the religious figure to death, provoking widespread global condemnations.
source : abna24
