Free Republic

HAMBURG - German prison authorities said Tuesday they had been ordered by judges to free Mounir al-Motassadeq, the only person ever convicted of a role in the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. The ruling from the German high court in Karlsruhe has not been made public yet. The Moroccan was serving a seven-year prison term after being convicted of membership in the Hamburg terrorist cell that provided three pilots for the hijacks and suicide attacks.

Defendant was 'terror cell member'17 September 2003 HAMBURG - A Moroccan man accused of membership in the Hamburg terrorist cell that staged the 11 September attacks actively participated in planning the suicide hijackings, a witness testified at his trial in Germany Wednesday. The 22-year-old witness, a university student who claimed to be a close acquaintance of defendant Abdel-Ghani Mzoudi, said he was convinced Mzoudi was an active member of a Hamburg cell of al-Qaeda terrorists responsible for the attacks which claimed some 3,000 lives. "I always had the feeling that he (Mzoudi) definitely belonged to the group," the witness testified....

Hamburg (dpa) - The al-Qaeda terrorist network has given military training to 70,000 men over the years, but now has only limited operational capabilities of its own, according to German police intelligence provided at a trial in Hamburg on Friday. A specialist from the Federal Crime Office BKA was testifying at the trial of alleged September 11, 2001 terror-pilot conspirator Abdel-Ghani Mzoudi, described by prosecutors as one of eight Arab men who devised the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Three of the named men died in the attacks and two are still at large. Germany says the...