A French appeals court sentenced a former imam Monday to five years in prison for involvement in a plot to stage attacks in France to support fighters in Chechnya. The Paris Court of Appeals stiffened Chelalli Benchellali's original 18-month suspended sentence, imposing instead a five-year prison term, and ordered him to return from Algeria to serve his time in France.Benchellali, his wife and two sons were among 25 people convicted in June 2006 in the plot, apparently aimed at calling greater global attention to the cause of Muslim Chechen rebels fighting the Russian government. Their family was considered by prosecutors to be at the center of the plan, under which some members of the group traveled to a base for Chechen fighters to learn about explosives and chemical agents. The prosecution contended the group was plotting an attack in Paris, but could not identify the target. The Russian Embassy, a police station and the Eiffel Tower were mentioned during investigators' interrogations.
Benchellali, an imam at a makeshift mosque in Venissieux, outside Lyon, was expelled from France to his native Algeria after receiving his original suspended sentence. Prosecutors had appealed because they considered Benchellali's sentence too light. In Monday's ruling, the court upheld Benchellali's conviction for criminal association with a terrorist enterprise, and sentenced him to five years. It ordered an arrest warrant for Benchellali, and ruled that he would be banned from living in France once he serves his term.