BAGHDAD, Iraq — An Iraqi court has sentenced to death a man accused of the kidnapping and killing of five Russian Embassy employees, the Iraqi Cabinet said.
The Cabinet said in a statement that the Russian workers were kidnapped in 2004 while on a project to rehabilitate a power station, but the description appeared to refer to an incident in 2006 when gunmen shot dead a Russian Embassy employee and kidnapped four others. The four were also killed later, one of them by beheading.
The statement said it was the work of terrorist organizations, including al-Qaida, with the aim of forcing countries to withdraw diplomatic personnel.
The statement, which did not identify the defendant, said he had been convicted of "the crime of kidnapping and killing five Russian civil servants working in the Russian Embassy."
Many diplomats and foreign workers were targeted during the worst period of Iraq's sectarian bloodshed in 2006 and 2007, particularly in the capital, Baghdad.
In 2004, gunmen killed one Russian and kidnapped two others who were working for a company contracted for a power plant project south of Baghdad. Eight of the company's workers also were kidnapped in April that year.