Last summer, a French court sentenced 25 Muslim would-be terrorists to prison for conspiring to bomb the Eiffel Tower and other landmarks.  Today an appeals court considering 13 of those convictions increased sentences for nine, confirmed the sentences for two, and found two others not guilty.

Prosecutors said during the original trial that the case underscored the "globalization of the jihad movement."

In the new trial, 9 of the 13 received tougher sentences than those originally handed down, including a woman, Hafsa Benchellali, whose family was at the center of the affair. Her two-year suspended sentence was increased by the appeals court to two years in prison and a ban from living in France once the term is served.

The defendants were charged with criminal association in relation with a terrorist enterprise, a broad charge used by France to bring terror suspects to justice.

The terrorists were known as the “Chechen Connection” because they battled the Russians in the Chechen War and hoped the bombings would advance their efforts to recruit Islamist fighters for Chechnya.

Previous related post: Islamists jailed for plotting to bomb Paris