Posted on 09/09/2003 12:17:59 PM PDT by Brian S
Sept. 9
— HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters) - A Moroccan accused of helping the suicide hijackers in the September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities was a fanatical Muslim who hated Jews, his trial heard on Tuesday.
Abdelghani Mzoudi, a 30-year-old electrical engineering student, is charged with being an accessory to 3,066 counts of murder and with membership of a terrorist organization -- the Hamburg-based al Qaeda cell that led the 2001 attacks.
Bernd Frost, 37, told the court that he had often discussed politics with Mzoudi when they lived in the same student accommodation building in Hamburg in the mid-1990s.
He described Mzoudi as a devout but "extremely fanatical" Muslim who supported Islamist attacks, hated the United States and Israel and said killing children could also be justified.
"Small Jews also eventually grow up," Frost quoted Mzoudi as telling him. "In one discussion Mzoudi said Jews rule America."
Frost said Mzoudi had also supported the death sentence issued against British author Salman Rushdie by Iran's late spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini for blaspheming against Islam in his novel "The Satanic Verses."
Mzoudi had said he would be prepared to kill Rushdie himself, Frost said.
The witness said that despite his extreme views, Mzoudi was a calm and friendly person whom he would not have expected to translate such hateful language into action.
Mzoudi could face the same 15-year jail term the Hamburg High Court handed to his friend Mounir El Motassadeq in February for similar charges in the first sentencing of a September 11 suspect anywhere. Mzoudi's trial could last until early 2004.
Prosecutors say Mzoudi, like Motassadeq, signed the will of the leader of the Hamburg al Qaeda cell, Mohamed Atta, who U.S. officials say flew the first plane into the World Trade Center.
They say that Mzoudi also handled money for a plotter, that he helped cover up for the absence of others while they were in Afghanistan or taking flying lessons in the United States and that he trained at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan himself.
The defense lawyers argue that Mzoudi did little more than help fellow Muslims and that his paying of student fees and other bills for the hijackers was in no way central to the hijack plot. Mzoudi has not responded to the charges in court.
Gee, what a surprise.
Abdelghani Mzoudi, a 30-year-old electrical engineering student, is charged with being an accessory to 3,066 counts of murder
That ought to land him a solid 10 year prison term in Germany. Maybe 12.
A bit harsh don't ya think? I'll bet he's out in 8.
This is part of the problem, really. We are seeing over and over the friendly, educated (often IT or engineering professional as in this case) who is nice to neighbors and co-workers who just happens to be a crazed fanatic when it comes to waging jihad. That says to me that this is one F'd up religion/death cult that can turn otherwise rational individuals into psychotic madmen.
SEE? If we just betray Israel, all the Muslims will love us like brothers! Right?
Yes. He would likely get time served on the 3,066 accessory to murder counts, and life in prison for a 1st degree hate crime.
But this would be real tough to prove, as Jews aren't considered humans by the German government.
And, upon release, a nice pension.
Why put him in prison at all? His views are not that different from those held by the French Foreign Minister.
Not too different from the German government of sixty years ago.
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