A Kyrgyz court on Tuesday convicted a former member of the radical Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a terrorist group that has been linked to Osama bin Laden \'s al-Qaida network, and sentenced him to 25 years in prison. Sherali Akbotoyev, 40, was convicted after a two-day trial on all charges he faced - including terrorism, hostage-taking and membership of a banned armed group - and will also have his property confiscated, said Judge Pamirdin Jumagulov of the Batken district court in southern Kyrgyzstan. Akbotoyev was detained in an unspecified foreign country - not Afghanistan or any country neighboring Kyrgyzstan - for breaking visa regulations, Kyrgyz security service spokeswoman Chinara Asanova said. He was extradited in May 2002 to the Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan, where the IMU has been blamed for a series of incursions and the kidnappings of four American mountain climbers and several Japanese geologists. The United States designated the IMU a terrorist group in 2000. Akbotoyev reportedly joined the IMU in 1999 with his three brothers and was a spokesman for the group\'s leader, Juma Namangani. Namangani was believed killed in fighting in northern Afghanistan in 2001, where the IMU fought alongside its Taliban allies against the U.S.-backed northern alliance. (AP)