Kamel Bourgass was jailed for life in June 2004

One of them, Mustapha Taleb, 35, was released at the Old Bailey on Monday.

But the others, David Aissa Khalef, 33, Mouloud Sihali, 29, and Sidali Feddag, 20, admitted passport offences and will be deported after their sentences.

Sihali was jailed for 15 months, Khalef received three years for having six passports and Feddag was given 18 months detention.

High security prison

The men were told they would not serve the full term in each case because they had been on remand in conditions of high security at Belmarsh Prison.

The judge, Mr Justice Penry-Davey, told them they were being sentenced on the basis that the fake passports were connected to immigration, getting work and obtaining benefit.

"I am putting out of my mind any question of the connections between these false documents, their use and issues of terrorism," he said.

The men were at the Old Bailey accused with 31-year-old Kamel Bourgass who is serving a life sentence for murdering Detective Constable Stephen Oake in Manchester in 2003.

Police believe Bourgass, a failed asylum-seeker, was an al-Qaeda operative who had spent time training in Afghanistan.

He was given a sentence of 17 years for conspiracy to cause a public nuisance by the use of poisons and/or explosives to cause disruption, fear or injury.