Posted on 12/18/2003 8:55:04 PM PST by Pokey78
HAMBURG. A man released after a Hamburg court ruled last week that there was insufficient evidence to hold him on charges of being a co-conspirator in the Hamburg cell believed to have masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, has applied for political asylum in Germany. The lawyer for Abdelghani Mzoudi, 31, said on Monday that the Moroccan was basing his application on a legitimate fear that if he were forcibly returned home the pro-U.S. government there would turn him over to the United States. The lawyer, Gül Pinar, did not elaborate, but local press reports said Mzoudi would argue that being turned over to the Americans could mean being sent to Guantanomo Bay, outside the jurisdiction of U.S. courts. It was not clear when the application would be heard, but Mzoudi remains free in Germany, though the charges against him have not been dismissed.
Mzoudi was released on the basis of a letter from the German Office of Criminal Investigation citing an unidentified witness who said Mzoudi had no advance knowledge of the attacks. The document was cited by the lawyer for Mounir Motassadeq, another Moroccan, as also exonerating his client, who was sentenced to a 15-year prison term in February after a Hamburg court ruled that he had helped plot the attacks, but lawyer Josef Grässle-Münscher's application for Motassadeq to be freed pending his appeal was rejected by a court here on Monday.
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