German court jails Iraqi for funding insurgents

STUTTGART, Germany, Sep 26 (Reuters) A German court sentenced an Iraqi man to 2-1/2 years in prison today for funnelling 12,500 euros to an insurgent group in Iraq.

''Surviving dependants of suicide attackers were apparently supported with the money,'' said chief judge Christine Rebsam-Bender.

The court found that the 37-year-old man received the money from an associate in Stuttgart in southwestern Germany in 2003 and, via middle men, passed it on to Ansar al-Islam, an insurgent group which the United States has linked to al Qaeda.

The man's associate, also an Iraqi, is himself on trial in Stuttgart for allegedly plotting in December 2004 to assassinate Iyad Allawi, then prime minister of Iraq, during a visit to Germany.

Reuters KK VP0118