RABAT, Sept 19 (Reuters) - A Moroccan court on Wednesday jailed 17 men including two Belgians on charges of forming a criminal gang that planned terrorist attacks.

The men, who police said had links to al Qaeda, were arrested in Casablanca and the Moroccan capital Rabat in 2005 and have been held in jail during their trial.

The appeal court near the capital Rabat sentenced Mohamed Reha and his uncle Mohamed Zemmouri, both Belgians of Moroccan origin, to 10 years in prison. Khaled Azig was also jailed for 10 years while the rest received prison terms of between one and six years, official news agency MAP said.

According to Moroccan security sources, Azig and Reha travelled to Morocco to recruit members for a terrorist gang, which had links with small cells based near the Iraqi border.

Among the people they contacted in Morocco were two former detainees at the U.S. army's Guantanamo Bay maximum security prison.

Police said Azig studied theology in Syria and made frequent trips from Syria to Turkey. Reha, who had also travelled to Syria, had links to Islamist radicals in Europe, they said.

Morocco has rounded up thousands of suspected Islamist radicals since 2003 when suicide bombings killed 45 people in the economic capital Casablanca.

The normally peaceful country was shaken again in March and April when seven men blew themselves up in Casablanca, killing themselves and a police officer. Al Qaeda's North African wing has threatened more attacks across the region.

Moroccan human rights groups say the authorities have abused the rights of arrested people. Many of them, they argued, were detained on unfounded suspicion of links to terrorism.

The government denies any abuse and says anti-terrorism trials are fair and respect the rights of defendants.

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