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2 men convicted in Tunisia bombingFrom CNN Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman  Workers repair damage in synagogue in Djerba after the 2002 bombing. YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSMADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A Spanish court has convicted two men, a Pakistani and Spaniard, of collaborating with a terrorist group and contributing to a Tunisian synagogue bombing in 2002. The bombing killed 21 people and a suicide bomber, according to a copy of the court order, viewed by CNN. It took place on the North African country's island of Djerba. The National Court sentenced each man to five years in prison in an order dated Tuesday but made public Wednesday. The Spaniard, Enrique Cerda Ibanez, 43, and Pakistani-born Ahmed Rukhsar, 40 -- a resident in Spain -- are businessmen who were arrested in Spain in 2003 on a request from French authorities investigating the synagogue bombing. Both professed innocence at their trial late last year before a three-judge panel, which handed down a 27-page ruling. The judges wrote: "The defendants Enrique Cerda and Ahmed Rukhsar contributed, through various activities, to the realization of the terrorist attack." The court found that Cerda "maintained financial relations" with an alleged al Qaeda operative, Essa Ismail Muhamad, alias Issa de Karachi, and through this contact, Cerda was linked to Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, who is in U.S. custody and considered to be a planner of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. The court said Mohammad also planned the attack against the synagogue in Djerba and gave orders to the suicide driver in that attack, Nizar Ben Mohamed Ali Bechir Naouar. The attack killed 14 Germans, two French citizens and five Tunisians, and wounded more than 30 others, the court said. The court cited numerous phone calls, apparently been monitored by authorities, involving Cerda and various terrorist suspects. Mohammad gave the suicide car's driver Cerda's phone number and ordered him to call Cerda, with a financial message from "Issa de Karachi." The court found that Cerda had carried out money transfers to various people at the request of Karachi, who is currently at large. The court ruled that Cerda also had contact with another suspect in the synagogue attacks, who had Cerda's business numbers at his ceramics firm in Valencia. And that Cerda also talked to the suicide brother's bomber, who was seeking money, via Karachi, to help finance the synagogue attack. The suicide bomber's brother also later talked with Mohammad. Cerda, the court ruled, "has not given a logical, coherent or minimally credible explanation for why so many people linked to Islamic terrorism -- and specifically to the synagogue attack -- had his telephone numbers." But the court arrived at its own explanation: that Karachi had been financing Cerda's ceramics business in exchange for Cerda making payments to people under Karachi's directions. Password problemDuring the trial, Cerda acknowledged knowing Karachi but insisted that they were just business associates, with Karachi purchasing ceramics from Cerda's firm over a number of years. But the court ruled that Cerda knew that Karachi was "a Muslim extremist," but Cerda's priority nonetheless was "to earn money, without questioning why he paid people who asked for money nor what activities they carried out." Cerda "contributed with his actions in financing Islamic terrorism activities and specifically, at least the synagogue attack," the court ruled. The other defendant in the trial, Rukhsar, owned a telephone call center and food store in the northern Spanish city of Logrono, and the court found that he sent money to the al Qaeda terrorist network. Rukhsar had financial movements exceeding $2.4 million in a relatively few months. The court found that Mohammad ordered the synagogue suicide bomber to also get in touch with Rukhsar, but they did not talk in the end because Rukhsar, the court said, didn't say the correct password to initiate a conversation with the suicide bomber. The court found that Rukhsar also had sent money to Karachi -- despite Rukhsar's testimony that he didn't know the man. One of the transfers was for $7,200 (6,000 euros) on April 10, 2002, the day before the synagogue bombing. That money went into Karachi's account, which was managed by the other defendant, Cerda. The court said Rukhsar knew he was conducting illegal activities and tried to hide it, by storing his records of transfers to Karachi's account in the basement of his business, accessible only through a secret covering. The lawyer for Rukhsar told CNN Wednesday that he would likely appeal the sentence. Rukhsar and Cerda have been out of jail since last December after serving nearly three years in prison, from their arrest until shortly after the trial concluded, said the lawyer, Gerardo Rubio. Cerda's lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment. 
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