Saudi police have recovered the body of a kidnapped pro-government Shia judge after a shootout in which a policeman and a suspected militant were killed, the interior ministry said Monday (December 25th).
The remains of Judge Mohammed al-Jirani were found on a farm in the town of Awamiya in the kingdom's Eastern Province, AFP reported.
The raid took place last Tuesday, and subsequent DNA tests confirmed that a body recovered was that of Sheikh Jirani, a ministry spokesman told the Saudi Press Agency.
The ministry named the slain suspected militant as Salman al-Faraj, adding that he was wanted on suspicion of terrorism offences.
Sheikh Jirani was kidnapped in December 2016 in front of his Awamiya home. The authorities said at the time they had arrested three suspects.
The judge had been the target of several attacks before his abduction.
In a press conference Monday, interior ministry spokesman General Mansour al-Turki accused the judge's kidnappers and murderers of forming "an organised terrorist group that has relations with Iran and benefits from its support".
Saudi Arabia's council of senior scholars -- comprised of only Sunni clerics -- has decried the murder.
"This is a crime that must be condemned in the strongest terms and which reveals the threats posed by these terrorists," the committee said in a statement.
