BAGHDAD – An Iraqi court has convicted in absentia and sentenced to death a former Sunni culture minister for his role in a 2005 attack on a secular politician that killed the politician's two sons and left him wounded, a judicial spokesman said Friday.

A Baghdad criminal court last Wednesday sentenced Asad Kamal al-Hashimi, who has been on the run since he was charged with murder in 2007, according to Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar, a spokesman for the Iraqi Higher Judicial Council.

The court ruled that al-Hashimi masterminded the Feb. 8, 2005 ambush against politician Mithal al-Alusi in the western Baghdad attack. The fugitive ex-minister has one month to appeal.

Posters of al-Hashimi reading “Help us to arrest this terrorist” have been seen in parts of the Iraqi capital. He has been in hiding since mid-2007 when Iraqi security forces, acting on a warrant, raided his Baghdad home and detained dozens of his bodyguards.

Still, the ruling is expected to further anger Sunni politicians who accuse the Shiite-led government of sectarian bias after a series of arrests of Sunnis this week, including that of a Sunni university president, a provincial council member and the son of prominent lawmaker.