Free Republic

A German appeals court has found a Moroccan, Mounir al-Motassadek, guilty of being an accessory to murder in the 11 September 2001 attacks on the USA. The Karlsruhe court sent the case back to a lower court for sentencing. In August 2005, a Hamburg court jailed Motassadek for seven years, following a year-long retrial. But the Karlsruhe judge on Thursday overturned the Hamburg court's decision to acquit Motassadek, 32, on thousands of counts of accessory to murder. He now faces up to 15 years in jail. Motassadek was originally jailed for 15 years in 2003, convicted of helping the 11...

Moroccan man who was friends with three of the 9/11 suicide hijackers has been found guilty in Germany of belonging to a terrorist organisation. Mounir al-Motassadek, 31, was sentenced to seven years in prison following a year-long retrial. However, the court in Hamburg ruled there was no proof that he knew about the 11 September 2001 plot. Motassadek was originally convicted of those charges in 2003 but the verdict was overturned and a retrial ordered. After the original conviction was quashed by Germany's Supreme Court last year, the retrial heard new evidence - excerpts of interviews with key al-Qaeda suspects...

The fight against terrorism cannot be a wild, unjust war Presiding Judge Klaus Tolksdorf Profile: Mounir al-Motassadek Q&A: Motassadek retrial Mr Motassadek, 29, had been serving a 15-year sentence. But the presiding judge said the evidence against him had not been sufficient for a conviction. "The fight against terrorism cannot be a wild, unjust war," Klaus Tolksdorf said. "A conflict between the security interests of the executive and the rights to defence of the accused cannot be resolved to the disadvantage of the accused." Abdelghani Mzoudi was released from custody in December He added that although Mr Motassadek was...

P AUL Deakin studied the pictures of the 9/11 terrorists with disbelief as he realised that among them was the man who had become his friend.For four weeks the maths teacher from the North of England and Ziad Jarrah, the man who seized controls of the fourth hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania, had shared a bungalow as they learned how to fly in Florida.They had watched Friends together on TV and gone out to local bars at weekends to play pool.But while all Paul had wanted was a private pilot's licence Jarrah had another purpose. He was to become...

A Moroccan has been charged with more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder in connection with the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, the German authorities said yesterday. Mounir El Motassadeq was accused of membership of a terrorist organisation and being an accessory to murder in 3,116 cases, Kay Nehm, the chief federal prosecutor said. Mr Nehm said El Motassadeq, 28, was an integral member of a terrorist cell in Hamburg which included three of the four suicide pilots, Mohammed Ata, Marwan Al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah. He is alleged to have acted as logistics and finance manager...

Authorities in Germany have outlined charges against a Moroccan man accused of links with the 11 September terror attacks on the United States. Mounir el-Motassadek is accused of belonging to a terrorist organisation and assisting in the murder of more than 3,000 people. German Federal Prosecutor Kay Nehm said Mr el-Motassadek, who is accused of being part of a Hamburg cell of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, is believed to have helped three of the hijack pilots enter the United States. Mr Nehm said prosecutors had also prepared charges against three other alleged members of the Hamburg group. The 28-year-old...