In the Czech Republic, a former member of the Communist-era secret police, has been sentenced to five years in prison for torturing a priest to death in 1950.

Ladislav Macha, who's now seventy-five, was convicted of killing the priest whilst investigating an alleged miracle at a village church.

In his efforts to make the priest confess to faking the miracle, Mr Macha deprived him of food and sleep and beat him with a stick.

The priest subsequently died of his injuries.

The BBC correspondent in Prague says that cases this old rarely reach the courts, and that when they do it's nearly always low-level agents like Mr Macha who are convicted.

Mr Macha has appealed against his sentence.