German court tosses world's only Sept. 11 conviction

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-03-04-sept11-court_x.htm

KARLSRUHE, Germany (AP) — A German court Thursday overturned the world's only conviction for the Sept. 11 attacks and ordered a retrial for a Moroccan found guilty last year of aiding the Hamburg cell of suicide hijackers.

Mounir el Motassadeq's conviction on more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization was flawed because the lower court failed to properly consider the absence of evidence from a key witness who is in U.S. custody, the Federal Criminal Court ruled. The jailed 29-year-old's case returns to court in Hamburg.

"The defendant el Motassadeq is certainly far removed from being clear of suspicion," Presiding Judge Klaus Tolksdorf said.

El Motassadeq is serving a maximum 15-year prison sentence after the Hamburg court convicted him in 2003 of giving logistical support to the Hamburg-based al-Qaeda cell that included Sept. 11 suicide hijackers Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah.

more