[Mb-civic] Friend of 9/11 Hijackers Convicted in Germany - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Friend of 9/11 Hijackers Convicted in Germany
Moroccan Guilty of Joining Al Qaeda Cell

By Craig Whitlock, Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, August 20, 2005; Page A12

BERLIN, Aug. 19 -- A German court on Friday convicted a Moroccan man and 
sentenced him to seven years in prison as a member of the Hamburg cell 
that planned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and 
the Pentagon.

But the court found Mounir Motassadeq, 31, not guilty of more than 3,000 
counts of accessory to murder in the attack, ruling that he did not play 
a direct role in the plot.

Mounir Motassadeq was acquitted of helping to plan the 9/11 attacks.

The judge overseeing the Motassadeq retrial, Ernst-Rainer Schudt, 
criticized the U.S. government for refusing to allow the court to 
interview or have access to several captured al Qaeda leaders who could 
have shed light on the inner workings of the Hamburg cell. He also 
accused U.S. authorities of stonewalling requests for information and of 
being uncooperative during the trial.

"The point is, we would have liked to have questioned them ourselves," 
Schudt said of the imprisoned al Qaeda leaders.

The U.S. Justice Department provided the German court with written 
summaries of interrogations of some al Qaeda leaders, including chief 
plotters Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheik Mohammed. But U.S. officials 
said it would pose a risk to national security to allow the captives, 
who are being held at undisclosed locations, to be cross-examined or 
questioned in greater detail.

German government officials, who have faced criticism for their 
inability to win convictions in other terrorism cases, praised the 
verdict. "A clear signal has been sent of the determination of the state 
in the fight against terrorism," Interior Minister Otto Schily said in a 
statement.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/19/AR2005081901557.html?nav=hcmodule
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