DUBAI (Reuters) - A court in the Yemeni capital Sanaa sentenced a U.S. man detained as a terrorism suspect in 2010 to 10 years in prison on Wednesday, judicial sources said, for allegedly killing a guard while trying to escape from a hospital where he was being held.

“The court sentenced U.S. national Sharif Mobley to 10 years in prison after he was convicted of killing an officer in the Yemeni intelligence,” a judicial source added, saying the sentence was subject to an appeal.

Mobley, 31, worked at a nuclear power plant in New Jersey before moving to Sanaa with his family to strengthen their Islamic faith, according to interviews with his wife Nzinga Islam. He and his family has denied any ties to militants.

He was accused of killing a guard and wounding seven other people as he tried to shoot his way out of a hospital where he was being treated after he was shot during his arrest.

According to U.K.-based rights group Reprieve, Mobley told his lawyers by telephone from prison in May that he feared for his life amid a civil war in Yemen which caused the U.S. to shut its Sanaa embassy.