Forty seven people were executed on Saturday in Saudi Arabia, including a prominent Shia Muslim cleric, for terrorism.

Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr was a supporter and driving force of the mass anti-government protests that erupted in 2011.

Iran, on state television said Saudi Arabia would pay a “high price” for the execution of al-Nimr.

The executions of forty seven people on security charges was the biggest mass execution for this type of offense in Saudi Arabia since 1980, at which time, sixty three people were killed for the 1979 seizing of Mecca’s Grand Mosque.

The list of the executed also included several people suspected of affiliation with AL-Qaeda.