A Saudi journalist who had been documenting the protests for two years for the BBC left Saudi Arabia as she judged the situation "too risky for [her] to continue investigating".[137] Nimr al-Nimr was sentenced to death by the Specialized Criminal Court on 15 October 2014 for "seeking 'foreign meddling' in [Saudi Arabia], 'disobeying' its rulers and taking up arms against the security forces".[138] His brother, Mohammad al-Nimr, was arrested on the same day for tweeting information about the death sentence.[138][139] Al-Nimr was executed on or shortly before 2 January 2016, along with 46 others in a mass execution.[140] His execution was condemned by Iran and Shiites throughout the Middle East, as well as by Western figures and Sunnis opposed to sectarianism. The Saudi government said the body would not be handed over to the family.[141] In March 2017, after a long campaign of harassment, the Saudi security forces killed two members of Nimr family during a raid on a farm in eastern Saudi Arabia. Miqdad and Mohammad Al-Nimr were killed at a farm in Awamiyah, the Nimr family hometown.[142] al-Nimr was very critical of the Saudi Arabian government,[143] and called for free elections in Saudi Arabia.[144]