This Just In

The Beeb reports:

A French convert to Islam with al-Qaeda links has been jailed for planning an attack on the US embassy in Paris.

Jerome Courtailler was given six years by the Dutch appeal court. Another man, Algerian Abdelghani Rabia, was given four years on similar charges.

The men were convicted of running a support network for the group, funded by credit card fraud and dealing in false documents.

Courtailler's brother David was jailed on terrorism charges in France in May.

No attack

The appeal court ruling overturns the 2002 acquittal of Courtailler and Rabia through lack of evidence.

The appeal court ruled, for the first time, that confidential information gathered by the Dutch secret service, could be used in court.

The men were found guilty of involvement in a terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda, which had been planning an attack on the US embassy in Paris.

The attack was never carried out.

The BBC's Geraldine Coughlan, in The Hague, says it is the first time Islamic militants have been found guilty of involvement in terrorism in the Netherlands.

Two other men, both Algerian, were acquitted of being part of a terrorist group but convicted of membership in a criminal organisation.

A Dutch man of Ethiopian origin was acquitted.