Ex-soccer star guilty of base bomb plot

The ringleader in Belgium's biggest-ever terrorism trial has been convicted of plotting to blow up a US military base in eastern Belgium.

Nizar Trabelsi, a Tunisian who used to play professional soccer in Germany, faces up to 10 years in prison on the charge.

He had admitted planning to drive a car bomb into the canteen of the Kleine Brogel air base, where 100 US military personnel work.

Judge Claire de Gryse pronounced the verdict during a court session, in which she reviewed evidence presented during the four-month trial.

More verdicts are expected against 22 other suspected sympathizers of al-Qaida or violent Islamic groups on trial with Trabelsi.

In addition to the plot against the NATO base, where US nuclear weapons are believed to be stored, other defendants are accused of involvement in the assassination of an anti-Taliban, Afghan military commander in 2001.

Trabelsi, who says he met Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and asked to become a suicide bomber, was arrested two days after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

His arrest led to the discovery of the raw materials for a huge bomb and it was long suspected he was also involved in the planning of a suicide mission against the US Embassy in Paris. Although he admitted trying to bomb the Belgian air base, he denied plotting to attack the embassy.

Because Belgium has no specific anti-terrorist laws, Trabelsi was charged with attempting to destroy public property, illegal arms possession and membership in a private militia.