(AhlulBayt News Agency) - A court in Riyadh has sentenced a Saudi national to 15 years in prison for supporting executed Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, local media reported on Thursday.
The executions provoked anger among Shiites and concern in the West, and raised tensions between Riyadh and Tehran.
Sheikh Nimr was a driving force behind protests among Shiites that began in 2011.
Those protests later developed into a call for equality in the kingdom where Shiites, most of whom live in the kingdom's east, complain of marginalisation.
Al-Riyadh newspaper did not name the convicted man, who it said took part "in rallies and marches" in the Shiite-dominated Gulf coast district of Qatif.
He was also convicted of "chanting anti-state slogans and sympathising with the deceased Nimr", it said.
Nimr's Qatif-area hometown of Awamiya has been the scene of repeated security incidents since 2011.
After the protests started, police issued a list of 23 wanted people. Many suspects on that list have already been detained or killed in shootouts.
Sheikh Nimr was detained in July 2012 on charges of delivering anti-regime speeches and defending political prisoners.
His arrest sparked widespread protests in the Arab country, leaving several people dead.
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3 November 2016 - 13:28
News ID: 789585
A court in Riyadh has sentenced a Saudi national to 15 years in prison for supporting executed Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, local media reported on Thursday.
