Nigeria Sentences Mastermind of Christmas Day Blast to Life

A Nigerian court on Friday sentenced the man behind a 2011 Christmas Day bombing to life in prison, in one of the highest profile convictions linked to the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency.

Rights group have been pressuring Nigeria to take more Boko Haram cases to court, saying the widely used tactic of rounding up suspected Islamists and holding them indefinitely violates domestic and international law.

Federal High Court Judge Adeniyi Adetokunbo-Ademola said prosecutors established that Kabiru Umar helped plan and orchestrate the blast at the St Teresa's Roman Catholic church in Mandalla, a town near the capital Abuja.

The bombing killed 44 and left another 50 injured.

The judge also found Umar guilty of planning to attack police and government targets in northwestern Sokoto state.

Church bombings were once a near-weekly element of the Boko Haram conflict, although such attacks have declined dramatically over the last 12 months, even as other forms of violence have increased.

Umar, who used the alias Kabiru Sokoto, reportedly worked as a taxi driver around Abuja while serving as a senior commander in the Islamist group which has killed thousands since 2009.

The judge said Umar showed "no remorse" through the trial.