Osama bin Laden's former driver Thursday was sentenced to 66 months in prison following his conviction on charges of providing material support to al Qaeda.
Salim Hamdan, who has been imprisoned at the U.S. military detention center at Guantanamo Bay since 2002, has already been credited with five years served.
Hamdan was found guilty Wednesday of receiving weapons training and transporting and delivering arms. A jury of six military officers rejected charges that he conspired with others to carry out al Qaeda attacks.
Earlier Thursday, during his sentencing hearing, Hamdan told a military court that he never suspected bin Laden was a terrorist until after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Prosecutors weren't buying his story and recommended he be sent to prison for 30 years to life.
Hamdan, speaking through a translator, gave the unsworn testimony one day after six officers convicted him of providing material support to al Qaeda but cleared him of terrorism conspiracy charges.
Hamdan tried to make the case to jurors that he was only a lowly driver, and described his relationship with bin Laden as "normal." 
Watch how Hamdan described bin Laden »
He said he treated bin Laden as an employee would treat a boss and, in turn, bin Laden treated him in a way that took into account his position.
"I respected him, and he respected me," Hamdan said. "I regarded him, and he regarded me."
He was taken into custody in southern Afghanistan in November 2001. Though the car he was driving contained missiles, he has said all along that the car was borrowed and the missiles weren't his. He repeated his assertions Thursday.
He made some of his comments in a closed session, which the government said was necessary in case classified information was raised.
Hamdan testified he had wanted to settle in his native country, Yemen, but after the 2000 attack by an explosives-laden motorboat on the USS Cole in Yemen's Gulf of Aden, which killed 17 American sailors, he and his wife left the country on a pilgrimage.
Hamdan said Yemeni media were blaming the attack on the Israeli Mossad, and he didn't know until later that al Qaeda was behind it.
He also said he was "shocked" to hear that al Qaeda carried out the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
"It was impossible in my mind that Osama bin Laden would be behind it," said Hamdan, who was still working for him at the time.
"My view and my thinking had changed completely. It was a big shock for me when someone had treated you with respect and regard, and then you realize what they were up to," he said.
When the U.S.-led war began in Afghanistan after 9/11 Hamdan said, he took his family to Pakistan for their safety, and he left them to return the borrowed car to its owner.
During the trial, prosecutors argued that Hamdan became a member of al Qaeda in 1996 and conspired with the group on terrorist attacks. They alleged that Hamdan overheard conversations about 9/11 and claimed to have other information showing he was part of bin Laden's inner circle.
The defense contended Hamdan was a low-level driver who knew little about the workings of bin Laden's al Qaeda network. They said he worked for wages, not to carry out war against America.
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