Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, one of the most senior clerics in Iran, said in an interview with the Mehr news agency that Nimr’s execution reflected the “criminal” nature of the Saudi ruling family.
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Demonstrators who had massed at the embassy gates to protest at Nimr al-Nimr’s execution broke into the embassy and started fires before being cleared away by the police.
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Saudi Arabia has executed 47 people on Saturday in connection with terrorism charges, media reports said.
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Other leading Shiite clerics in Iraq have reacted with outrage to the execution on Saturday by the Saudi authorities of Nimr and other Shiite activists.
“This scholar neither encouraged people into armed action nor secretly conspired for plots but the only thing he did was utter public criticism rising from his religious zeal”, he said of Nimr.
“The unjustly spilled blood of this oppressed martyr will no doubt soon show its effect and divine vengeance will befall Saudi politicians”, state TV reported Khamenei as saying on Sunday.
Arab News profiled the cleric, listing Al-Nimr’s crimes as “criticising Saudi authorities”, suggesting “secession of the Eastern Province if Shia rights were not respected” and “calling for protesters to resist security forces”.
Al-Sadr’s word carries weight with Shiites beyond Iraq’s border, and the spiritual leader called for them to protest, too – including in Saudi Arabia.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, while condemning Saudi Arabia’s execution of al-Nimr, also branded those who attacked the Saudi Embassy as “extremists”.
But he said the attack on the Saudi embassy was a “totally unjustifiable” act committed by radicals who should be brought to court.
Human-rights groups have criticized the Saudi justice system for not following due process by denying the accused access to legal counsel during interrogations and indicting suspects on vague charges like adopting extremist ideology or undermining the stability of the state.
“We have additional work that needs to be done before we would announce additional designations, but this is not something that we would negotiate with the Iranian government”, spokesman Ben Rhodes said.
There have also been outbreaks of unrest in Bahrain, where demonstrators took to the streets, and in the eastern Iranian city of Mashhad, where the Saudi consulate was the scene of protests. The law codified that the kingdom could prosecute as a terrorist anyone who demands change, exposes corruption, or otherwise engages in dissent or violence against the government.
Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group backed by Iran, said that the U.S. was directly responsible for al-Nimr’s execution because it supports the Saudi Arabian government.
On Sunday, Al-Nimr’s brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, called for the cleric’s supporters to protest against his execution and to do so peacefully. “God will not forgive”.
Officials including the White House’s deputy national security adviser have urged the Saudi government and other Middle Eastern leaders to “redouble efforts aimed at de-escalating tensions”.
Some were beheaded with a sword while others were executed by firing squad, said ministry spokesman Mansur al-Turki.
Saudi Arabia summoned Iran’s ambassador on Saturday over what it described as Tehran’s “hostile” reaction to the executions of 47 terrorism convicts, which Shiite preacher Nimr Al-Nimr and Al-Qaeda ideologue Fares Al-Shuwail were among.
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A list published by the official Saudi Press Agency included Sunni Muslims convicted of involvement in Al-Qaeda attacks that killed Saudi and foreigners in the kingdom in 2003 and 2004.
