Iraq's top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani (Photo: REUTERS)
Iraq's top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani on Sunday condemned the execution of Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi Arabia, calling it an "unjust aggression".
"We have received with much sorrow and regret the news of the martyrdom of a number of our brother believers in the region whose pure blood was shed in an unjust aggression," the cleric, said in a letter addressed to the population of the eastern Saudi region of Qatif where Nimr used to preach.
The opinion of Sistani, based in the Shia holy city of Najaf south of Baghdad, carries weight with millions of Shias in Iraq and elsewhere.
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