Mounir El Motassadeq Jailed for 15 years
Prosecutors claimed that Mounir El Motassadeq provided back-up to a Hamburg-based group as it plotted to hijack planes and fly them into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
El Motassadeq, an electrical engineering student, was convicted of being an accessory to the murder of more than 3,000 people in New York and Washington and with belonging to a terrorist organisation. He denied the charges.
Prosecutors, who had demanded the maximum 15-year sentence, said the accused was aware of the hijackers' plans.
They argued that he provided logistical back-up for the Hamburg-based al Qaeda cell led by Mohamed Atta, who US authorities say crashed the first plane into the World Trade Center.
Defence lawyers said the accused did little more than befriend fellow Muslims and that they would appeal against the conviction.
