A Moroccan court on Thursday sentenced a Frenchman to life imprisonment under anti-terrorism legislation introduced following suicide bombings by Islamist extremists in Casablanca in May.

The prosecution sought the death penalty for Pierre Robert, a 32-year-old convert to Islam, and five of 33 co-defendants who were accused of planning terror attacks and of having organized or participated in weapons training in Morocco.

The blond, blue-eyed Robert -- who claimed during the trial to have been a French spy -- stood silent when the judge pronounced his verdict. Some other defendants shouted "Allahu Akbar," God is the Greatest, punching the air with their fists.

"We are relieved that he (Robert) was not sentenced to death," his lawyer Vincent Courcelle-Labrousse told reporters adding that the defense would appeal the guilty verdict.

Two more defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment, one was given 30 years for undermining state security, criminal conspiracy and possession of weapons, and other sentences ranged from three months to 20 years. One man was acquitted. None of the accused were sentenced to death.

Robert was arrested less than four weeks after the May 16 bombings in Casablanca on charges of recruiting for an extremist Islamist current dubbed by security services the Salafist Jihad.

The second-hand car trader was arrested after the Casablanca bombings which killed 33 members of the public and 12 suicide bombers. He was not accused of direct involvement in the attacks for which four people were sentenced to death in August.

Robert said during the trial he had been recruited by French intelligence services to investigate Islamist networks in Morocco and Algeria but France denied his claims.

Robert denied he had planned explosions in France and Morocco. His defense said the prosecution lacked material evidence against him.

He has lived in Morocco since 1996 after marrying a Moroccan woman and settling in the northern city of Tangiers.

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