BERLIN, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- A Moroccan-born German citizen was sentenced to 69 months by a local court in northwestern German town of Schleswig on Thursday for convicting of terrorist activities.

    The convicted, named Redouane el-H, was found of supporting al-Qaida and setting up a terrorist group of his own, according to German news agency DPA.

    Redouane, 38, was also found of using the internet to communicate with at least four other Islamists.

    The group were raising funds for a jihad or holy war, but police were observing them and arrested them all in Sweden or Germany before they could do any harm. The others are being tried separately.

    El-H at one point transferred 2,000 euros (around 2,880 U.S. dollars) to help suicide bombers obtain equipment and enter Iraq.

    At one point in his trial he briefed the court on code-words used by the militants, such as calling a suicide bomber a "taxi-driver."

    He was convicted under a tough extra-territorial law that makes it a crime for someone in Germany to establish or belong to a terrorist organization anywhere in the world.

    Prosecutors in Schleswig, near the Danish border, had demanded a tougher penalty of 78 months and defense counsel had called for his acquittal.