11 years each for al-Qa'ida fund-raisers

Britain's first convicted al-Qa'ida terrorists were jailed for 11 years each today after they were found guilty of raising funds and recruiting people for Osama bin Laden's terror network.

Illegal immigrants Brahim Benmerzouga and Baghdad Meziane raised thousands of pounds through a credit card fraud for an international network of terrorists planning a Jihad, or holy war, against the West.

The two Algerians also worked together to make military equipment, false travel documents and recruitment material available to the terrorist organisation, a jury at Leicester Crown Court heard.

Benmerzouga, 31, and Meziane, 38, became the first men in Britain to be convicted of being part of the al-Qa'ida terrorist network which carried out the September 11 attacks.