TUNIS, March 3 (Reuters) - Tunisia's Supreme Court upheld on Saturday a 20-year jail sentence against the uncle of a suicide bomber for his role in the attack that killed 21 people, most of them German, court sources said.

Fourteen Germans, five Tunisians and two French were killed when the suicide bomber rammed a tanker filled with cooking gas into a Jewish shrine in the North African country in 2002.

The bombing on the southern island of Djerba, Tunisia's main tourist destination, was the first attack claimed by al Qaeda in an Arab country after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

Judge Fethi Ben Youssef upheld the sentence against Belgacem Nawar, 45, for helping the bomber carry out the attack, his lawyer Samir ben Amor said.

In June, a lower court convicted him for the same charges and condemned him to 20 years in prison. He pleaded not guilty before both courts.

"We are sure that he is innocent but we hope for presidential pardon," said Ben Amor.

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