France jails man over ties to Sydney terror plot

PARIS (Reuters) - A top Paris court convicted a French Muslim convert to nine years in jail on Thursday for links to a group suspected of plotting an attack against an Australian nuclear plant.

Prosecutors accused Willy Brigitte and co-defendant Sajid Mir of planning attacks on the Lucas Heights nuclear research facility outside Sydney and military installations.

Presiding judge Jacqueline Rebeyrotte found Brigitte guilty of association with "criminals engaged in a terrorist enterprise" and said he should serve at least six years.

The Paris criminal court handed Mir the maximum 10-year sentence, in absentia. He too must serve two thirds of his sentence.

Brigitte's defense lawyers said after the verdict the prosecution had failed to provide concrete evidence their client had been planning an attack and said if that had been the case, Australian authorities would not have extradited him to France.

Australia has been targeted by Islamic militants over its role alongside U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Brigitte, 38, born in the French Caribbean territory of Guadeloupe, had pleaded innocence and told the court that the case against him was biased.