Free Republic

GERMANY'S federal appeals court has overturned the conviction of Mounir El Motassadeq, the only man found guilty anywhere in the world over the September 11 attacks, and ordered a new trial. The Moroccan student had been jailed for the maximum 15 years by a court in Hamburg, northern Germany, last year for accessory to the murder of more than 3000 people and membership in a terrorist organisation. It means Motassadeq will now have to undergo a new trial, also in Hamburg, the city that served as a base for three of the suicide hijackers involved in the deadly 2001 suicide...

The Associated Press 2/5/2004, 5:51 a.m. ET HAMBURG, Germany (AP) — A Hamburg court on Thursday acquitted a Moroccan man accused of helping the Sept. 11 hijackers after a 5 1/2-month trial that was only the second anywhere of a suspect in the attacks. Abdelghani Mzoudi, 31, had no visible reaction as presiding Judge Klaus Ruehle read the verdict to the court, keeping his arms folded and looking down toward the floor. Prosecutors had sought the maximum 15 years in prison on more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization. Last February, similar evidence...

SEPT 11 SUSPECT ACQUITTED A Moroccan man accused of helping the September 11 suicide hijackers has been acquitted by a German court. Abdelghani Mzoudi, 31, had been charged in Germany's second major 9/11 trial with aiding and abetting the murder of several thousand people and being a member of a terrorist organisation, the Hamburg cell of al Qaeda. The court pronounced its verdict despite a last-minute bid by lawyers for victims' families to delay it, claiming alleged new evidence linked to the case of accused September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui in the United States. They are appealing against the verdict....