A court in the southern German city of Stuttgart sentenced a Syrian asylum-seeker to three and a half years in prison for his participation in the 2013 kidnapping of a UN observer in Syria.

The court found the defendant, identified as Suliman Al-S., supported the kidnapping and offered to serve as a guard. The judges did not agree with public prosecutors, however, that the 26-year-old belonged to the terrorist group, Al-Nusra Front, al Qaida's affiliate in Syria, or that the Nusra Front was responsible for the kidnapping.

Public prosecutors argued the defendant was a member of Al-Nusra, an affiliate of Al-Qaida

The UN observer was allegedly kidnapped near Damascus in February 2013 by individuals close to the Nusra Front but was able to escape after eight months captivity.

Read more: Germany arrests Syrian national on war crimes, murder charges

Public prosecutors had requested Al-S., who arrived in Germany in 2014 as an asylum-seeker, serve seven years in prison. Al-S.'s lawyers asked the court for a suspended sentence of two years. The Stuttgart court agreed on the final sentence after considering the length and circumstances of the observer's captivity.

During the case, Al-S. admitted to visiting a villa where a foreigner was being held captive. However, he denied knowing that the prisoner was a UN employee or that the prisoner's captors were planning to convert the man to Islam. He also denied knowing about plans to release the man in exchange for a $100 million (€83 million) ransom.

The defendant was accused of helping kidnap a Canadian UN observer near Damascus in 2013

The defendant at one point apologized to the Canadian observer directly and offered him €500 as compensation. The observer did not accept the gesture.

After arriving in Germany in 2014, Al-S has been in police custody since January 2016. He is the first refugee to be charged for war crimes in Syria by a German court, according to the federal public prosecutor.

amp/sms (AP, AFP, dpa)