[Update, January 3, 2016: Sheikh Nimr was executed by beheading and his body crucified on January 2, 2016, by the authorities in Saudi Arabia. He was one of 47 executed that day. The oppressed Shia population in Saudi Arabia is protesting; Iran, a majority Shia nation is officially outraged. The Sheikh was a soft-spoken leader of that population.

Below is a post from October 2015.]

His family says that he has calmly accepted his probable fate: Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr is due to be beheaded soon, possibly this week. A post from his Facebook account this morning confirmed that Sheikh Nimr was informed by his family (rather than by a judge in a hearing) yesterday that a court upheld his sentence. It said that he thanked them for the information.

Sheikh Nimr is the uncle of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, the young man who has also been sentenced to die by beheading because he was arrested at a protest. The fact that Ali was arrested while he was a juvenile and his outrageous sentence of beheading and subsequent crucifixion—the public display of his dead body—garnered worldwide condemnation and even statements from leaders in other nations that used Ali’s name specifically in requests that he be spared, that he be set free; that specificity was somewhat shocking because politicians usually are not so specific and they employ that watered-down phrase “human rights in general” when they want to signify displeasure with an ally’s torching of human rights in general but without risking consequences. Political leaders in the United Kingdom have risked consequences in speaking Ali’s name; none have done so in my country.

The public display of outrage specific to Ali’s case sparked a similarly rare display of Saudi anger specific to the outrage when the Saudi embassy in London released a statement that decried the public statements and even named Ali.
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