ROME, August 20, 2008 (AFP) - A Moroccan imam accused of helping to plot terrorist attacks in Morocco and Italy wants to face justice at home despite the risk of torture, his lawyer told the ANSA news agency on Wednesday.

Abdelmajid Zergout 'decided, with great dignity and great sadness, to face trial in his country, even though he is aware of the risks he is running,' his lawyer Luca Bauccio told ANSA.

'The risk of physical torture that he may be subjected to in Morocco is secondary compared to the psychological torture he has suffered for 10 years in Italy,' he said.

Zergout, 43, who was arrested in Varese, northern Italy, on Saturday, 'is exhausted, tired of being branded a terrorist, found guilty by public opinion,' Bauccio said, summarising what his client told a Milan appeal court that is deciding whether to extradite him.

The former imam of Varese, near Milan, is being held on a warrant issued in July by prosecutors in Rabat who accuse him of criminal association to plan terrorist attacks, subversion of public order and financing terrorism, police said.

Zergout, who was arrested three years ago as part of an anti-terrorism investigation in Italy, was acquitted last year by a Milan court.

The Milan appeal court has 40 days to decide whether to extradite him.

Morocco suffered its worst terrorist attack in May 2003 in Casablanca, since when hundreds of suspected Islamist extremists have been arrested.

Human Rights Watch alleges that many were held 'in secret detention for days or weeks, subjected to mistreatment and sometimes torture while under interrogation, and convicted in unfair trials.'