Posted on 11/16/2006 1:39:30 AM PST by Michael81Dus
KARLSRUHE, Germany (Reuters) - Germany's highest court of appeals on Thursday ordered that a Moroccan friend of the September 11 hijackers must face a third trial on charges of aiding the deadly 2001 attacks on the United States.
Judge Klaus Tolksdorf, who has said that Mounir El Motassadeq clearly knew his acquaintances from Hamburg were planning plane attacks, ordered the retrial.
Motassadeq was convicted last year of belonging to a terrorist organisation and sentenced to 7 years in prison, but cleared of the more serious charge of abetting mass murder.
He was unexpectedly freed from a Hamburg prison in February after Germany's Constitutional Court upheld a defence motion that he be released pending an appeal.
Motassadeq is one of only a handful of men to have been tried in connection with the September 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
F***, yeah! But I tell you something: 50% of Germans think the Saddam should be executed, and many more believe that the current penalties are too low. My own opinion is, that we (Europe) need a mix between your punishment and ours. To me, 5 years for a simple theft is too long, one year will do. But a robberer should not be out before he served at least 5 years in prison. It´s unbearable that a man who killed his baby (manslaughter) gets just 6 years here - is a baby a less valuable life?? Many Americans complained that the RAF-terrorist who killed a US serviceman was released after 18 years in prison and suspected a political deal by my government. But that´s normal here. In fact, killers are out after 15 years, except they´re considered "unfit for society" by psychologists.
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