French court finds ex-Guantanamo inmates guilty

PARIS - Five former Guantanamo Bay inmates were found guilty on Wednesday of terrorism-related charges by a French court and sentenced to one year in prison.

A sixth man was acquitted, according to the ruling that was read out in court.

The verdict took into account the 18-30 months the defendants had spent in the Guantanamo U.S. military prison and none will have to serve further time in jail.

The men say they were tortured at Guantanamo and a French public prosecutor said earlier this month that they had already suffered enough and should not return to prison.

Prosecutors said the five men, who are all French nationals, received military training in al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan between 2000 and 2001. They were accused of "criminal association in relation to a terrorist enterprise".

They had said there was not enough evidence to convict the sixth defendant and had urged the court to drop the charges.

The trial over the suspected links to al Qaeda began last year but was thrown into doubt after it emerged that French agents secretly interviewed the six in 2002 during their detention in Guantanamo, which is on the island of Cuba.

The defence contested the legality of the meetings, which it said took place at a time when the men were held in leg irons and detained in cages in the heat of the sun. However, their request for the trial to be abandoned was rejected.

During the 2006 hearings, five of the men confirmed they had been in al Qaeda training camps but said they had not carried out any military action before their capture.

The men were arrested in Afghanistan and Pakistan after the United States invaded the country in 2001, and were transferred to Guantanamo. They were returned to France in 2004 and 2005 after negotiations between Paris and Washington.