2 men convicted in Germany of supporting al-Qaida-linked group

2 convicted in Germany of supporting terror group

FRANKFURT — A German court convicted two men Tuesday of supporting a radical Islamic group with links to al-Qaida and sentenced them to prison terms.

The Frankfurt state court found the two guilty of supporting the Islamic Jihad Union, an offshoot of the jihadist Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

It sentenced Omid Shirkhani, a German of Afghan background, to two years and nine months in prison; and co-defendant Huseyin Ozgun, a Turk, to a year and two months.

In 2007, authorities foiled alleged plans by the Islamic Jihad Union to attack U.S. targets in Germany. Though neither man was charged in that plot, the court found that both had links to Adem Yilmaz, a Turk living in Germany who is currently on trial over the plans.

The sentences fell short of prosecutors’ demands. Presiding judge Karlheinz Zeiher said the defendants, who had admitted to the charges against them, had ultimately carried out “relatively harmless support actions” for the group.

The court found that they procured equipment such as night-vision devices and supplied hundreds of dollars in cash.

Shirkhani continued to seek German welfare payments at a time when he had traveled to a training camp in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, judges found.