KUWAIT CITY, 6 June 2004 — A criminal court convicted seven Kuwaitis yesterday of involvement in the 2002 shooting attack on US Marines training in the country that killed one and injured another, sentencing three of them to jail time.

Three of the key suspects received four and five years in prison for joining an illegal organization and weapons possession. They and three of the others convicted were fined from 200 Kuwaiti dinars ($680) to 5,000 dinars ($17,000), one was ordered on two years probation and five were acquitted.

The Oct. 8, 2002, attack by two extremists was the first on US forces in Kuwat, which has been a major ally of Washington since the US-led Gulf War liberated it from a seven-month Iraqi occupation in February 1991. It stunned Kuwaitis, many of whom remain supportive of the United States despite widespread anti-American sentiment in the region.

Cousins Anas Al-Kandari, 21, and Jassim Al-Hajiri, 26, opened fire on the Marines as they took a break from urban assault training on the Kuwaiti island of Failaka. They killed one Marine and injured another before they were shot dead by Marines on the scene.

Those convicted yesterday must pay the fines immediately and have 30 days to file appeals. They would be free during the appeals process, beginning to serve their sentences only if and when the convictions and sentences were upheld.

All of the men have been free on bail. The court’s verdict was released in a written statement. Some lawyers and relatives came to the courthouse to await it, but none of the defendants were present.

Abdul-Majid Khraibet, lawyer for two of the defendants — one who received the steepest fine and the other acquitted — said his client who was fined would appeal the verdict and that he believed the others who were convicted would do so as well.

“The verdict achieved a great deal of justice,” Khraibet said, “but we must appeal and achieve full justice.”

Hearings in the case had been closed to the press because one of the defendants, Ibrahim Hassan Al-Kandari, who was accused of scouting the site of the attack, was a juvenile when he was arrested. He was sentenced to two years probation.

The eldest among the men is 25 years old. Some of them are brothers and cousins; two are the sons of former lawmaker Jamal Al-Kandari.

One of the four prime suspects, Adnan Assad Al-Kandari, was acquitted. The three others received the heaviest sentences: Sulaiman Jamal Al-Kandari and Mohammed Assad Al-Kandari were sentenced to 5 years in prison and 500 dinar ($1,700) fines; Ahmed Mohammed Al-Kandari was sentenced to four years and a 200 dinar ($680) fine.

Ghazi Faisal Al-Tarrah was fined 5,000 dinars ($17,000) for trading in weapons. Ahmed Jamal Al-Kandari received a 2,000 dinar ($6,800) fine and Dhari Saleh Al-Shimmiri a 1,000 dinar ($3,400) for illegal weapons possession.

Abdullah Mohammed Al-Kandari, Yousef Ahmed Al-Kandari, Mostafa Hassan Sarab and Saad Mohammed Al-Saeed all were acquitted of weapons possession charges.

None of the defendants were convicted of one of the most serious charges — conspiring with the gunmen.

The police said the two assailants, who had trained and fought in Afghanistan, were members of Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda organization. However, lawyers said Al-Qaeda was not mentioned in the counts.

A number of other attacks on Americans followed the Failaka attack, at least one of which was blamed on extremists.

A January 2003 shooting near Camp Doha, a US-military facility, killed one American contractor and seriously wounded another. The assailant, Sami Al-Mutairi, was convicted and sentenced to death. An appeals court commuted the sentence to life in prison last year.