Amin Lokman Mohamed was convicted of recruiting militants in Europe and of raising funds for Ansar al-Islam, an Islamic group that operates out of northern Iraq and that is thought to have links to Al-Qaeda.
Mohamed, who came to Germany as an asylum-seeker in 2000, was arrested in Munich in 2003.
The case is being seen as a test of Germany's anti-terrorism legislation. German law now makes it a crime to be a member of a terrorist organization, removing the need for the police to prove that the accused personally committed a murder or other felony.
(AP, dpa)