German court frees 9/11 suspect
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Mzoudi had been charged with thousands of counts of aiding and abetting murder.
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HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters) -- A German court released a Moroccan man after the judge in his trial said there was new evidence which "clearly exonerates" him of suspicions he helped the September 11 plotters.
The lawyer for another Moroccan, convicted and jailed in Germany for abetting the September 11, 2001 attacks, also said he would demand his client's immediate release.
Judge Klaus Ruehle granted a defense motion for the release of Abdelghani Mzoudi on Thursday after German investigators informed the court of new testimony that the Moroccan did not belong to the Hamburg al Qaeda cell instrumental in the September 11 plot.
Ruehle told the court that the arrest warrant for Mzoudi had been lifted as there was no further reason for his detention. Mzoudi had been detained since his arrest in October 2002.
"There is the serious possibility that Mzoudi was purposefully left out of the attack plans despite his links to the Hamburg group and despite his stay in Afghanistan and that his supportive actions were not consciously made," Ruehle said.
The judge said earlier that an unnamed witness gave evidence in November that only suicide pilots Mohamed Atta, Marwan al Shehi and Ziad Jarrah, and Ramzi bin al-Shaibah, an al Qaeda leader in U.S. custody, belonged to the core Hamburg group.
The witness, who the judge said German investigators had not identified, said the four did not include anybody else in their plans for the suicide plane attacks on New York and Washington.
State prosecutor Walter Hemberger had opposed the request for Mzoudi's release and said the unidentified witness could only be bin al-Shaibah himself, adding his evidence was just an attempt to protect others and cover up details of the plot.
Mzoudi, 31, was charged with several thousand counts of aiding and abetting murder and membership of a terrorist organization, the Hamburg cell.
Mzoudi has not replied to the charges in court. His lawyers say he did little more than help fellow Muslims, and his paying of bills for a friend had nothing to do with the hijack plot.
Last month, a German court rejected a bid by Mzoudi's lawyers for the German government to allow statements from bin al-Shaibah, accused of liaising between the Hamburg cell and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, to be used in his trial.
Bin al-Shaibah was arrested in Pakistan in September 2002 and transferred into U.S. custody. Mzoudi's lawyers have said his evidence was crucial to their client's case.
The material was passed onto the German authorities by U.S. authorities to help German investigations against alleged Islamic extremists, but with the explicit understanding it would not be used in any court proceedings.
Lawyers defending another Moroccan, Mounir El Motassadeq, who was sentenced in February by the same German court to 15 years in jail on similar charges to Mzoudi, had also sought but were denied access to bin al-Shaibah's testimony.
Motassadeq's lawyer told Reuters on Thursday that he would seek the release of his client, whose appeal is still pending, following the surprise freeing of Mzoudi.
The Hamburg court trying Mzoudi had been due to start hearing closing arguments last month, but that was delayed to give the German government time to decide whether to hand over U.S. records of the interrogation of another al Qaeda leader.
The office of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder requested more time to consider whether to make available transcripts of the interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a captured al Qaeda chief and alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks.
Mzoudi's case has parallels with that of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only accused September 11 conspirator to be charged in the United States, who also wants to question Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, bin al-Shaibah and other al Qaeda figures.
Copyright 2003
Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
