PARIS, May 14 (Reuters) - A French court sentenced six French men and one Algerian on Wednesday to between 18 months and seven years in prison for their involvement in a network which smuggled Islamist fighters to Iraq. The seven, arrested in 2005, could have been jailed for up to 10 years for "criminal association in a terrorist enterprise". A 26-year-old preacher who headed the group, Farid Benyettou, was given a six-year sentence, of which he will have to serve at least two-thirds, the court said. Prosecutors had accused Benyettou of recruiting "jihadists" from worshippers at a mosque in northern Paris and organising their transfer to Iraq via radical religious establishments in Syria and Egypt. Boubakeur al Hakim, who fought in Iraq, and Said Abdellah received seven-year sentences, while the others were given lighter terms. Three other French nationals recruited by the network were killed in Iraq, one in a suicide attempt and the others while fighting U.S. forces there, according to documents presented to the court during the trial. Court documents have shown police believed the group, based in the Buttes-Chaumont area in northern Paris, was set up in 2003 or 2004 and "indoctrinated" groups of young Muslims at a mosque and nearby hostel. The documents said Farid Benyettou spoke to the group of "dying as a martyr to deserve paradise". After brief paramilitary training, they were sent to Koranic schools in Syria that specialised in smuggling foreign fighters across the border to Iraq. (Reporting by Thierry Leveque; Writing by Tamora Vidaillet; Editing by Catherine Evans)
A portrait of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is planted on soil and rock barricade set by Sunni Muslim gunmen to block the main road to Syrian borders in the Masna'a ...
