Nouakchott, Mauritania - A court in the west African country of Mauritania has sentenced a member of an al-Qaida cell to death for the 2009 slaying of an American teacher.
A North African branch of al-Qaida said it targeted 39-year-old Christopher Leggett because he allegedly was trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.
Leggett was fatally shot in the Mauritanian capital not far from a school he helped run. The Tennessee native, his wife and their four children had lived in Mauritania for more than six years.
The Mauritanian court announced Tuesday that the man found guilty of plotting Leggett's murder would be executed. Two other men were sentenced to prison as accomplices to the crime.