Iranian human rights activists and academics have called on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to pressure Saudi rulers and prevent them from carrying out the death sentence handed down to prominent religious scholar Ayatollah Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr.
According to the reports, in a letter to OIC Secretary General Iyad Ameen Madani on Wednesday, the Iranian activists expressed regret over Riyadh’s decision to uphold Ayatollah Nimr’s death penalty, describing the verdict as “brutal and unfair.”
Executing people merely for exercising their right to free speech and taking part in peaceful demonstration is in contravention of “natural human rights as well as the principles of the religion of Islam,” the letter said.
Such a ruling also runs contrary to the terms of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam, which should be respected by all OIC member states, including Saudi Arabia.
The Iranian activists also called on the Muslim body to shoulder its responsibilities vis-à-vis the human rights issues and the rights of minorities in its member nations.
They also demanded that the OIC adopt all possible measures and pile pressure on Riyadh to overturn Sheikh Nimr’s death sentence, saying that the organization could also seek help, if necessary, from other international rights institutions to this end.
source : irib
