Retrial ordered for 9/11 suspect
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Motassadeq's trial was the first of a suspected attack conspirator.
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HAMBURG, Germany -- A German appeals court has ordered a retrial of the only person convicted in connection with the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
The Federal Criminal Court ruled Thursday that the case involving Mounir el Motassadeq must be sent back to a lower court in Hamburg "for a new trial and decision," Presiding Judge Klaus Tolksdorf said.
But the judge added: "The defendant el Motassadeq is certainly far removed from being clear of suspicion."
Lawyers for the 29-year-old Moroccan argued that he was denied a fair trial because the U.S. refused to provide access to a key witness.
El Motassadeq, an electrical engineering student, is serving a 15-year prison sentence after a Hamburg court found him guilty in February 2003 of being an accessory to more than 3,000 murders in New York and Washington and being a member of a terrorist organization.
The court ruled that he provided logistical support to the Hamburg-based al Qaida cell that included September 11 suicide hijackers Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah.
El Motassadeq's lawyers have asked the appeals court for acquittal or a retrial, alleging their client was wrongly convicted because the U.S. refused to allow court testimony by Ramzi Binalshibh, thought to be the Hamburg cell's key contact with al Qaeda.
Binalshibh was captured in Pakistan on the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks and is in U.S. custody.
If el Motassadeq's conviction is overturned, it would be a new setback for German prosecutors after the Hamburg court last month acquitted his friend Abdelghani Mzoudi of identical charges -- more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization -- for lack of evidence.
The 15-year sentence is the maximum the court could impose under German law for being an accomplice to murder -- even if those murdered are numbered in the thousands.
In addition to the 3,000-plus counts of accessory to murder, he was convicted of five counts of attempted murder and bodily injury.
Prosecutors alleged he provided logistical support for the Hamburg al Qaeda cell that included lead hijacker Mohamed Atta, who piloted one of the two airliners that crashed into the World Trade Center.
Motassadeq consistently denied the charges during his three-and-a-half-month trial and his lawyers were seeking an acquittal from the five-judge panel.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
