DHAKA, Dec 30 (Reuters) - A Bangladeshi court sentenced five
members of a gang to death on Sunday for killing a Saudi Arabian
diplomat in the capital Dhaka last March, court officials said.
Khalaf Ali, 45, a second secretary at his embassy, was shot
at night near the embassy in Dhaka's diplomatic zone, raising an
alarm over the first slaying of a diplomat in the country.
Judge Mohammad Motahar Hossain of the quick-trial court
issued the verdict for the five men who police said shot Ali
while trying to rob him. One of the accused remains on the run
from police.
Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh have close ties, with a large
number of Bangladeshis employed in the oil-rich kingdom. In
recent years, the embassy has tightened visa rules to stop an
influx of people with forged documents.
Relations between the two countries were strained in October
2011, when Saudi authorities executed eight Bangladeshi workers
in public for their alleged involvement in an armed robbery in
which an Egyptian security guard was killed.
(Reporting by Ruma Paul; Editing by Anis Ahmed and Ron Popeski)