Free Republic

EINDHOVEN, The Netherlands - A member of the Hamburg terrorist cell that planned the Sept. 11 terror attacks visited this southern Dutch town a number of times before the attacks, said German and Dutch authorities. The Dutch secret service also confirmed yesterday that German authorities were investigating the trail of money that flowed through here from Saudi Arabia to finance possible terrorism operations. A spokesman in the German federal prosecutor's office declined to comment, and it is not clear whether a link has been established between the suspected Hamburg cell member, Mounir el-Motassadeq, who is on trial in Germany, and...

HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters) - A Moroccan accused of helping the September 11 suicide hijackers received training in encryption techniques at an al Qaeda camp in Iran in 1997, an Iranian defector said on Friday. But his testimony to a German court was promptly undercut by comments from Germany's intelligence services, who questioned his credibility and said his evidence was worth very little. Hamid Reza Zakeri, the cover name of a man who says he worked in Iranian intelligence and defected in 2001, was testifying toward the end of Germany's second major trial of suspected members of al Qaeda's Hamburg cell....

HAMBURG, Germany - A Moroccan convicted as an accessory to murder in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks was sentenced Monday to the maximum 15 years in prison, minutes after telling the son of a woman killed that day "my future is ruined." A federal appeals court convicted Mounir el Motassadeq, a friend of three of the suicide pilots, in November of knowingly helping the hijackers and sent the case to a state court in Hamburg for sentencing. Just before Monday's verdict, the 32-year-old defendant spoke with an American whose mother died on board one of the planes that crashed into...

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...

Ressam at times defiant in 2 days of questioning By Mike Carter Seattle Times staff reporter After more than a year of cooperating with federal prosecutors, Ahmed Ressam has become a sometimes difficult and defiant government witness. Ressam was at times surly and evasive during two days of closed-door questioning this week in Seattle by German lawyers who need his help prosecuting Mounir el-Motassadeq, a Moroccan accused of helping the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers. Ressam, convicted of conspiracy to commit an act of international terrorism, might be endangering his deal with federal prosecutors to serve as few as 27 years...

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.

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...

Source is in german language. Mounir al Motassadeq was one of the planners in Germany for the 9/11 attacks. He was being (re)tried on 3000+ accounts of accesory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization. The earlier sentence was tossed out on appeal and sent back for retrial. The germans were insisting upon having Binalshib & Co testify. He has now been senetenced to SEVEN years, apparently based only on the membership in a terrorist organization. The accesory charges were deemed unproven because the interrogations of Binalshib & Co MIGHT have been forced (torture).

HAMBURG, Germany (AP) - Lawyers for the first person convicted in the Sept. 11 plot say they believe new evidence from the U.S. will allow him to beat charges that he helped the Hamburg al-Qaida cell plan the attacks - but fear acquittal here may put Mounir el Motassadeq in U.S. custody. If el Motassadeq is found not guilty after a yearlong retrial that ends this summer, German authorities say they'll send him to his native Morocco - a move defense attorneys say could result in his transfer to the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or elsewhere. El Motassadeq's...

DUESSELDORF, Germany -- A Jordanian man who claims he was Osama bin Laden's bodyguard was questioned by U.S. officials who are considering having him testify at the Virginia trial of terror suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, the man's attorney said Thursday. Shadi Abdellah, 28, sentenced last November to four years in prison for helping plan terror attacks in Germany, was granted early release last month after serving more than half the time, including in pretrial custody. While in prison, he served as a government witness in several trials, including that of his alleged co-plotters in the German cell of the Tawhid and...

HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters) - Lawyers for a Moroccan man accused in Germany of aiding and abetting the Sept. 11 attacks called Tuesday for President Bush (news - web sites) to be summoned as a witness. Lawyer Udo Jacob, defending accused Moroccan Mounir El Motassadeq, said Bush should be called to testify about accusations he granted the CIA (news - web sites) powers to send terrorism suspects to foreign countries for interrogation. The United States has already turned down a request for former CIA chief George Tenet to testify at Motassadeq's trial, and there is no prospect of Bush appearing in...

HAMBURG, Germany - A Moroccan accused of helping the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers introduced a Sudanese student to a group around alleged lead hijacker Mohammed Atta, a group that raged against the United States "because it defends Israel," the student testified Wednesday. Ahmed Maglad, 30, testified he met defendant Mounir el Motassadeq while living in Hamburg in 1997. Maglad said the Moroccan introduced him to Atta, who he described as "aggressively religious" and always trying to "prove something." "Everybody spoke out against the United States because it defends Israel," Maglad said of the Hamburg group, adding that its members believed...

HAMBURG, Germany, Aug. 10 — A German court today began a retrial of Mounir el-Motassadeq, the only person convicted of involvement in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, with the disclosure that the United States will for the first time share evidence about the plot. Mr. Motassadeq's conviction was thrown out in March by an appeals court, which said that critical evidence had been withheld by American authorities. After having been sentenced to 15 years in prison, Mr. Motassadeq was freed in April. The decision by the United States to offer limited cooperation to the Germans introduces a combustible element to...

A Hamburg court retrying suspected al Qaeda terrorist Mounir al Motassadeq will have to forgo the testimony of the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks in custody in the US, after Washington refused access to him. In a letter by the US Justice Ministry read out in the Hamburg court Tuesday, the US underlined its interest in keeping secret the complete transcripts of the interrogations of Ramzi Binalshibh and made it clear that he would not be available for testimony. "It is the duty of the Justice Ministry to protect its sources and methods," the letter said. It added that...

BERLIN - Two suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks will be deported to their native Morocco, authorities said Tuesday, including one who is awaiting a new trial after being sentenced to 15 years for helping the al-Qaida suicide pilots. Both Abdelghani Mzoudi and Mounir el Motassadeq were served with the notice Monday, said ministry spokesman Marco Haase, the first step in what is expected to be a lengthy process that will take place only after all the appeals in their cases go through. Mzoudi, 31, was acquitted in February on more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and membership...

eternal student Motassadeq sues Hamburg Technical University for not being allowed to continue his studies. Motassadeq was declared guilty of being a member of the Muhammad Atta terrorist cell by the Highest Court of Hamburg, and sentenced to 15 years prison, for helping murder more than 3000 people. The German Supreme Court canceled the sentence and set him free, under surveillance.

After having released Mounir El Motassadeq, the German Court in Hamburg has dropped the terrorism charges against him (3066 counts of accesory). One Charge remains - membership in a terrorist organisation. Until June he remains free, but must remain in Hamburg (at least initially) and must report to the police twice a week. If convicted of the remaining charge, he could face from 1 to 10 years. [my opinion - he will walk on this charge as well.] The entire case has been essentially thrown out based on statements made by others whose connection to the attacks on 9/11 is...

HAMBURG, Germany (AP) - A German judge said Friday the case against the only Sept. 11 suspect ever convicted may collapse if it goes to a retrial, adding that he will decide next week whether to free Mounir el Motassadeq. At a hearing to rule on the Moroccan's request to be released from jail, Judge Ernst-Rainer Schudt pointed to a March appeals court ruling that the suspect failed to get a fair trial the first time. Consequently, Schudt said that "in the further course of the proceedings it may have to be considered that ... the question of closing the...

The trail of Motassadeq must be held again because the appellate courts say that he received an unfair trail (because Binalship didn't testify!!) Motassadeq was convicted and sentenced to 15 years as an accomplice to the 9/11 attacks and for being a member of a terror group. For the original german text, follow the link.

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...