FOUR Islamic radicals accused of planning to bomb Jewish targets in Germany were jailed for up to eight years yesterday in a case that exposed the links between the terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and European networks.

The verdict on the three Jordanian Palestinians and an Algerian puts in place an important cog in international efforts to understand and track down al-Zarqawi, who is behind terror attacks in Iraq.

For the first time, a court has established how al-Zarqawi, who has a $25 million (£14 million) bounty on his head, runs his cells in Europe. Summing up, Judge Ottmar Breidling said: “In this case Abu Musab al-Zarqawi should also have been in the dock.”

There was no doubt in his mind that the three Jordanian Palestinians were following al-Zarqawi’s instructions.

Muhammad Abu Dhess, Ismail Shalabi and Ashraf al-Dagma were sentenced to between six and eight years for conspiracy to murder and for membership of the terrorist organisation al-Tawhid.

The fourth man, Djamel Moustfa, from Algeria, was found guilty of supplying them with weapons and of being a supporter, rather than a member of the terror group. He was jailed for five years.

A surprising picture of one of the world’s most wanted terrorists emerged from the trial. Al-Zarqawi came across as a leader sensitive to the foibles of his men, able to mask his irritation with his incompetent followers.

When one of the group lost the photographs for a passport forged in Iran, al-Zarqawi merely said: “It is the will of Allah.” He settled many squabbles within the group and eased nerves. Even when he urged them to speed up their planning for a bomb attack, he did so gently: “Listen, listen, the longer the matter takes, the worse it is for you. Try to shorten this process of waiting and trust in Allah.” The members of the cell, talking among themselves, called him Habib — “dearest” or “darling”.

The evidence against the men was based largely on transcripts of conversations secretly recorded by the German police, and by the testimony of a crown witness, Shadi Abdallah. The conversations were conducted in code, which Mr Abdallah helped to decipher for investigators. Mr Abdallah, a Jordanian Palestinian and supposedly a former bodyguard of Osama bin Laden, had been part of the cell when he was convicted in 2003 and sentenced to four years in jail.

Much energy was spent by the terror cell in accumulating an arsenal for the attacks. The targets were a Jewish community building in Berlin and, according to Mr Abdallah, the Jewish museum in the German capital — renowned for its architecture — as well as two Jewish-owned restaurants and bars in Düsseldorf.

There seems to have been no question of a suicide bombing. The Jordanians negotiated to buy a pistol with a silencer (codename The Dumb One), a crate-load of grenades (Russian apples) and automatic weapons (televisions with 50 channels).

“It was only a matter of time before the group would have amassed the weapons needed for an attack,” Judge Breidling said. The police nipped the conspiracy in the bud with a series of raids in 2002. Their task was made easier by the clumsiness of the terrorists.

The attacks were planned well before al-Zarqawi took on his other roles in the inter- national terror network. Counter-terrorist experts believe that he has probably become a much tougher leader. “A lot of things have happened since, in Afghanistan and in Iraq,” a specialist said. “Al-Zarqawi would not tolerate a bunch of losers like this any more.”

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