A key French member of the Islamic State group, Salim Benghalem, who had ties to the Charlie Hebdo attackers, was sentenced in absentia by a Paris court on Thursday to 15 years in prison, reports Yahoo! News.
Six other men, who have returned from Syria and Iraq, were given sentences of between six and nine years.
Benghalem, 35, is thought to have been in Syria since 2013 and is subject to an international arrest warrant.
He is believed to be one of the IS jailers of Western journalists and aid workers who were later executed, working alongside Mehdi Nemmouche, who later carried out a fatal attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels in 2014.
Benghalem is listed as a "foreign terrorist combatant" by the United States, and is known to French intelligence services for his "active participation in combat" in Syria, a security source told AFP last year.