The convicted al-Qaeda terrorist behind the attempted murder of the BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner was executed by Saudi Arabia last Saturday alongside 46 other men including a high-profile Shia cleric.
Adel al-Dhubaiti, a Saudi national, opened fire on the BBC reporter whilst he was filming for a report in Saudi Arabia with his cameraman Simon Cumbers.
Frank Gardner was shot six times and left paralysed while his friend Simon Cumbers was killed in the attack in Riyadh in June 2004.
The BBC journalist was left with life-changing injuries but made a defiant recovery and remains one of the BBC’s finest correspondents on security and terrorism issues.
He had previously turned down the chance to meet al-Dhubaiti after his attacker was sentenced to death in November 2014.
‘I don’t want to see this guy. Why would I? What am I going to get from it? The man’s soul is dead,’ he previously said in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph.
‘He (Adel Al-Dhubaiti) is completely unrepentant. He has never said sorry.
‘He is still in the mindset that he had when he attacked us. So forgiveness is not really an option,’ he revealed.
‘All that matters is that the guy should never be free on the streets because he is a danger to humanity.’
Al-Dhubaiti was executed alongside dozens of al Qaeda members today in Saudi Arabia, signalling that the Kingdom would not tolerate attacks, whether by Sunni jihadists or minority Shi’ites.
Hundreds of Shi’ite Muslims marched through Qatif district in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province in protest at the execution of cleric Nimr al-Nimr, an eyewitness said.
They chanted ‘Down with the Al Saud!’ the name of the ruling Saudi royal family.
Nimr, the most vocal critic of the dynasty among the Shi’ite minority, had come to be seen as a leader of the sect’s younger activists, who rejected the quiet approach of older community leaders for failing to achieve equality with Sunnis.
Most of the 47 killed in the kingdom’s biggest mass execution for decades were Sunnis convicted of al Qaeda attacks in Saudi Arabia a decade ago. Four, including Nimr, were Shi’ites accused of involvement in shooting policemen.
The executions took place in 12 cities, four prisons using firing squads and the others beheading. In December, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula threatened to retaliate against Saudi Arabia for any execution of its members.
The move further soured relations between Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and its Shi’ite regional rival, Iran, which had hailed Nimr as the champion of a marginalised Shi’ite minority.
In Iraq, prominent religious and political figures demanded that ties be severed, calling into question fence-mending efforts by Riyadh that had been intended to boost a regional alliance against Islamic State militants.
The executions seemed mostly aimed at discouraging Saudis from jihadism after bombings and shootings by Sunni militants in Saudi Arabia over the past year killed dozens and Islamic State called on followers there to stage attacks.
After the executions, Islamic State urged its supporters to attack Saudi soldiers and police in revenge, in a message on Telegram, an encrypted messaging service used by the group’s backers, the SITE monitoring group reported.
Saudi Arabia’s ruling Al Saud family has grown increasingly worried in recent years as Middle East turmoil, especially in Syria and Iraq, has empowered Sunni militants seeking to bring it down and given room to Iran to spread its influence.
A nuclear deal with Iran backed by Saudi Arabia’s biggest ally, the United States, has done little to calm nerves in Riyadh.
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By: Daily Mail