Moroccan Mounirel Motassadeq was found guilty of belonging to a terrorist group on Friday and sentenced to seven years in jail by a German court, but he was cleared of a charge he aided the September 11 attackers.

Judge Ernst-Rainer Schudt said the court believed that Motassadeq was an acquaintance of Mohamed Atta, the Hamburg student who crashed a hijacked plane into New York's World Trade Center. But Motassadeq, 31, was found to be lacking by al-Qaida leaders who assessed him at an Afghan training camp.

"Our impression is that he was too lightweight for this task," Schudt told the court. "He wasn't the same calibre as Atta."

The verdict came after a year-long retrial at which prosecutors had tried to prove Motassadeq helped plot the suicide hijack attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in 2001. He had been convicted on both charges at a first trial in 2003, but that ruling was quashed on appeal.

The prosecution had been asking for a 15-year sentence for Motassadeq, who listened impassively in blue jeans and a grey checked shirt as the verdict was read out.

The outcome hinged largely on evidence from captured al-Qaida prisoners, which the United States withheld from Motassadeq's first trial and made available only in limited form at the retrial.

Washington declined, on security grounds, to let the court question the prisoners, including two senior figures being interrogated at secret locations on suspicion of masterminding the attacks. It released only summaries of information they revealed under questioning.

One of them, Ramzi bin al-Shaibah, said Motassadeq was one of a group of Arab students in Hamburg who had "studied jihad" (holy war) and "engaged in vitriolic anti-US discussions" at the home of Mohamed Atta.

But he said he knew nothing of the plot.

The German Government welcomed the ruling.

"The ruling demonstrates the resoluteness in the fight against terror by the state based on law, and is encouraging for the security agencies," said Interior Minister Otto Schily.

That a terrorist linked to the 9/11 attacks has now been convicted is proof that Germany is fighting terror with efficiency and success, Schily said.

Motassadeq's lawyer, Ladislav Anisic, told reporters: "We will certainly appeal."

Anisic said if the appeal failed he expected Motassadeq to serve only about one year of the sentence before being expelled from Germany because of time he had already spent in jail.

Motassadeq is one of only six men worldwide who have been tried or have trials pending in connection with the attacks.

(China Daily August 20, 2005)