Posted on 11/07/2003 7:41:36 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
HAMBURG, Germany (AP) - The roommate of a Moroccan accused of supporting the Hamburg-based Sept. 11 hijackers told a German court Friday that videos calling for holy war seized from their apartment belonged to him. Abderrazek Labied, 40, testified that his roommate Abdelghani Mzoudi, had never seen the videos or heard the audio cassettes, described by a judge as containing "aggressive religious speeches" urging jihad, or holy war. Labied added that their VCR had been broken for some time and although he continued to buy the tapes, he couldn't watch them. "They just lay there getting dusty," Labied said. Mzoudi, 30, was arrested in October 2002 and charged with accessory to murder and membership in a terror organization for providing logistical support to the Hamburg al-Qaida cell, which included suicide hijackers Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah. He faces 15 years in prison if convicted. Prosecutors allege Mzoudi carried out financial transactions for the cell and helped conceal the whereabouts of members so that they wouldn't attract the attention of authorities. Andreas Schulz, who represents U.S. victims of the Sept. 11 attacks as a co-prosecutor in the case, told The Associated Press Labied's testimony was not believable and that he was protecting his friend. "The tapes link Mzoudi to the jihad scene," Schulz said. But defense attorney Guel Pinar said the presence of the tapes at Mzoudi's apartment did not prove anything. "Even if he did see them, it's nothing illegal," she said. Labied testified he met Mzoudi in 1998 and shared a one-bedroom flat with him in a Hamburg suburb since June 2001. He said they both knew members involved in the Sept. 11 attacks, but they had never discussed them. Labied said he first learned his roommate had trained in the same al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan as the hijackers during the trial of Mounir el-Motassadeq, another Moroccan who was convicted in February of the same charges faced by Mzoudi and sentenced to the maximum prison term. When asked by a judge to explain why he told police in the days after Sept. 11 that he hadn't known Atta and the others, he testified it was because he misunderstood their question. "There are different types of knowing someone - you can know someone to see them or know them as a friend," he said.
It depends on what the definition of "is" is..
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