With credit for 61 months already served, that means Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni father of two with a fourth-grade education, will be sent back to the general detainee population of Camp Delta by January, and be eligible to return home.

Choked with emotion on hearing the sentence, Hamdan stood and addressed the jury, unscripted, and twice more apologized for any pain his work as a $200-a-month driver had caused.

"And I would like to thank you for what you have done for me," he said.

Earlier in the day, at his sentencing hearing, he expressed regret over the "innocent people" who died in the terror attacks in the United States, according to a Pentagon transcript.

The jury's decision, after 70 minutes of deliberation, was a huge rebuke to the U.S. government, which had insisted that no less than 30 years' confinement - and even a life term - would suffice on Hamdan's conviction for material support for terror.

His sentence now goes for mandatory review to a Pentagon official, who can shorten it but not extend it.

In response to a question sent to the judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, the jury knew before handing down the sentence that Hamdan - convicted in the first contested U.S. war-crimes tribunal since World War II - had already been given credit toward his conviction for 61 months and eight days served.

On Wednesday, the panel of senior U.S. military officers convicted Hamdan of providing material support for terror as bin Laden's driver and bodyguard from 1996 until Hamdan's capture in Afghanistan in 2001.

The jury, led by a Navy captain, acquitted Hamdan of conspiracy charges that had alleged he was responsible for al-Qaeda violence from the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Prosecutor John Murphy had urged the jury to make an example of Hamdan. "You have found him guilty of offenses that have made our world extremely unsafe and dangerous," Murphy said during the sentencing hearing. "The government asks you to deliver a sentence that will absolutely keep our society safe from him."

The defense had urged leniency, reminding jurors that Hamdan was not convicted of any role in al-Qaeda's attacks. "It is important the world recognize that this is justice and not revenge," said Charles Swift, one of Hamdan's civilian attorneys.

Later yesterday, Murphy, despite disappointment over the sentence, described the jury's rejection of the prosecution's recommendation as "a vindication for the system."

Judge Allred had been inquiring for months into the circumstances of Hamdan's confinement at Guantanamo. Ever since Hamdan was designated in July 2003 to face one of the first trials, defense lawyers said, he had been separated from other detainees, in virtual solitary confinement with long periods of no sunshine.

Prosecutors and prison-camp officials say there is no such thing as solitary confinement at Guantanamo.

After the jury's sentence, the judge turned to the Yemeni and said: "I wish you godspeed, Mr. Hamdan. I hope the day comes when you return to your wife and your daughters and your country."

"God willing," Hamdan, in traditional Yemeni robe and head scarf, replied in Arabic, interrupting.

The judge continued: "And I hope that you are able to be a father, and a provider, and a husband in the best sense of the word."

Then Hamdan said it again: "Inshallah."

Allred replied in Arabic: "Inshallah."

It remains unclear what will happen to Hamdan once his sentence is served, since the military has said it would not release anyone who still represented a threat. A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, said, "I know staff in Washington are working very hard on this issue."

Defense lawyers said they expected that Hamdan would be let go in five months. "It was all for show if Mr. Hamdan does not go home in December," Swift said.

As of yesterday, the Defense Department reported it held about 265 detainees at the Navy base in Cuba - including 16 "high-value" detainees, who were once held by the CIA and are in segregation at Camp 7, and one convict.

As the lone convict, his defense attorney told the judge, Hamdan was put in his own separate wing of Camp 5 on Wednesday night.

Moments later, as he was led out of court by military guards, Hamdan turned to the spectators' gallery, waved both hands in the air, and called out, "Bye-bye, everyone."