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Court releases moroccan 911 suspect { December 11 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=420422§ion=newshttp://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=420422§ion=news
Court releases Moroccan 9/11 suspect
Thu 11 December, 2003 12:59
By Christian Eggers
HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters) - A German court has unexpectedly ordered the release of a Moroccan man on trial for abetting the September 11 plotters after the judge says that new evidence clearly exonerated the suspect.
Judge Klaus Ruehle granted on Thursday a defence motion for the release of Abdelghani Mzoudi 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.
The shock move threw into doubt the conviction of another Moroccan, Mounir El Motassadeq, who was sentenced last February to 15 years in a German jail after becoming the first person convicted anywhere in the world in connection with the attacks.
His lawyer said he would seek the immediate release of Motassadeq, convicted on similar charges to those Mzoudi faces.
The dramatic sequence of events began when trial judge Ruehle revealed the existence of new evidence from a witness whose identity had not been revealed by German investigators.
He said this witness testified that only suicide pilots Mohamed Atta, Marwan al Shehi and Ziad Jarrah, along with Ramzi bin al-Shaibah, an al Qaeda leader now in U.S. custody, belonged to the core group of Hamburg plotters.
The witness said the four did not include anybody else in their plans for the suicide plane attacks on U.S. cities.
Ruehle told the court that the arrest warrant for Mzoudi, who had been held since October 2002, had now been lifted as there was no further reason for his detention.
Proceedings were set to resume on Thursday afternoon but it was not clear if the trial could continue.
AIDING AND ABETTING?
Mzoudi, 31, is charged with several thousand counts of aiding and abetting murder and membership of a terrorist organisation, the Hamburg cell.
He is accused of handling money for the plotters, training at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, and covering up for members of the Hamburg cell while they were in Afghanistan or taking flying lessons in the United States.
But Ruehle said: "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."
State prosecutor Walter Hemberger had opposed the request for Mzoudi's release and said the unidentified witness could only be bin al-Shaibah himself, who was captured in Pakistan in September 2002 and is accused of liasing between the Hamburg cell and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Hemberger said the new evidence was just an attempt to protect others and cover up details of the plot.
A lawyer for the convicted Moroccan, Motassadeq, said his client should also be freed on the basis of the new evidence.
"We will make an immediate move to get him out, this is clear," lawyer Josef Graessle-Muenscher told Reuters. "If Ramzi bin al-Shaibah said the cell was only four people, and this was him and the three hijackers then the case is clear."
The cases have parallels with that of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only September 11 conspirator to be charged in the United States. Moussaoui has demanded the right to question bin al-Shaibah and two other al Qaeda captives who might help clear him. The U.S. government refuses on national security grounds.
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