AMMAN (AFP) - A Jordanian military tribunal jailed three Islamists Wednesday for trying to join Iraq rebels and acquitted two others, including one who had been accused of slandering the king.

Judicial sources said Mahmud Abdel Aal and Yussef Shafei were sentenced to three years in jail each, while Khalil Ennabi was sentenced to one year.

Ayman al-Khawaldeh and Jamil Rayan were acquitted of any wrongdoing, the sources added.

The five defendants faced between three to five years in prison on charges of "carrying out activity that undermines Jordan's security and its ties with a foreign country", according to court papers.

Their trial opened in June, three months after they were arrested when they returned home from neighboring Syria, from where they had hoped to travel to Iraq to join insurgents fighting Iraqi U.S.-led coalition troops.

In addition, Khawaldeh was accused of having slandered the king.

The charge sheet had said Khawaldeh "has accused Arab regimes, including Jordan, of failing to abide by the rule of Allah and their constitutions were drawn up by the British and the Americans".

According to Jordanian law such views are considered "slander" against the king.

When the verdict was read, Khawaldeh bitterly told the court: "What is the point of acquitting me. I have already spent several months in jail".

Those of his co-defendants who were sentenced to jail chanted Islamic slogans when the judge read the verdicts.

"Allah is our master, not your master," they said.