A federal judge sentenced a former roommate of Zacarias Moussaoui yesterday to the time he has already served for lying to federal agents last year when he was questioned about Mr. Moussaoui, the only person charged in an American court with conspiring in the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

But the former roommate, Hussein al-Attas, a Yemeni, will continue to be detained as a material witness for the Moussaoui trial, in which Mr. Attas was subpoenaed by prosecutors to testify. The trial is scheduled for June in Alexandria, Va.

Mr. Attas, a former student at the University of Oklahoma, has been in federal custody since the terror attacks. He lived briefly with Mr. Moussaoui in the summer of 2001 in Norman, Okla., where Mr. Moussaoui enrolled in flight school. Mr. Attas also drove Mr. Moussaoui to Eagan, Minn., where he tried to attend another flight school.

When Mr. Attas pleaded guilty on July 22 to seven counts of making false statements, he admitted that he lied to federal agents when they first questioned him in Minnesota in August 2001, and that he again lied when he was questioned after his arrest in Norman on the day of the attacks.

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In a letter to Judge Michael B. Mukasey of Federal District Court in Manhattan that was made public yesterday, Mr. Attas apologized, and said he ''was in a state of shock and confusion'' when he lied to federal agents, ''but that does not excuse my unlawful actions.