BAGHDAD (AP) - The Iraqi government says an al-Qaida in Iraq leader has been sentenced to death for the slaying of a Chaldean Catholic archbishop, who was kidnapped in February and his body found days later.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh says the Iraqi Central Criminal Court handed down the sentence Sunday against Ahmed Ali Ahmed, an al-Qaida leader also known as Abu Omar, for the bishop's killing.
Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was snatched in February in the northern city of Mosul by gunmen who attacked his car as he left a Mass. His body was found later in a shallow grave.
It was the latest attack against Iraq's small Christian community. Chaldeans, an Eastern-rite church, are the largest sect among the country's 1 million Christians, many of whom have fled the country.
Al-Dabbagh does not specify when Ahmed was arrested, but he says he was wanted in other terror attacks.
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