Dupe Retrial of Convicted Terror Suspect Opens in Hamburg

VOA News
10 Aug 2004, 11:38 UTC


The retrial of the only terror suspect convicted on charges related to the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States opened Tuesday in Hamburg, Germany.
Moroccan Mounir el Motassadeq was convicted last year of assisting a Hamburg-based al-Qaida cell involved in the attacks. But his conviction was overturned in March by a German appeals court, which ruled the trial was unfair because the defendant was denied testimony from two accused terrorists in U. S. custody.

After the proceedings got under way today, the presiding judge, Ernst-Rainer Shudt, read a letter from U.S. officials that said the United States would not agree to a request by the court to question the two men.
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Mounir El Motassadeq, close friend of Sept 11 hijackers


Moroccan Mounir El Motassadeq arrives at the Higher Regional Court of Hamburg
Posted: 10 August 2004 2000 hrs

HAMBURG, Germany : Moroccan student Mounir El Motassadeq, whose new trial over the September 11, 2001 attacks began in Germany, was a close friend of the three suicide hijackers at the heart of the plot.

Motassadeq, now 30, has described himself in testimony as a devout Muslim who was unaware that his cohorts were planning to attack US cities with passenger jets.

But during the trial that led to his conviction in February 2003, prosecutors painted him as a fanatical accomplice able and willing to provide logistical help to assure the conspiracy's success.

The son of a well-to-do medical assistant in Marrakesh, Motassadeq came to Germany in 1993 to pursue studies in electrical engineering.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/100091/1/.html