TIME ONLINE
Q&A: the acquittal of a 9/11 suspect in Germany
Thu Feb 5 15:56:46 2004
64.140.158.147

February 05, 2004

Q&A: the acquittal of a 9/11 suspect in Germany
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1-990299,00.html 

Abdelghani Mzoudi, a suspected accomplice of the Hamburg cell that orchestrated the September 11 attacks, has today been acquitted in a German court. Roger Boyes, left, reports.

Who is Mr Mzoudi?

He was charged with being an accessory to murder and membership of a terrorist organisation, which amounts to a charge of conspiracy in relation to the 9/11 attacks.

The circumstantial evidence against him included the fact that he was a friend and fellow student of the 9/11 attackers, took over the apartment of Mohammed Atta, the lead hijacker, signed his will, attended a terrorist camp in Afghanistan and transferred money for one of the hijackers.

Why was he acquitted?

His trial appeared to be heading for a conviction until a dramatic submission of new evidence in December. A letter passed on to German security services from US officials said that Mr Mzoudi had no prior knowledge of the attacks.

The court said it thought the unnamed source for the letter's claim was Ramzi Binalshibh, the No 4 in the Hamburg cell, who has been in US custody since his arrest in Pakistan on the first anniversary of the attacks.

The letter caused the prosecution's case to crumble, as it could not prove Mr Mzoudi's conspiracy if it could not demonstrate that he knew of the plot in advance.

Judge Klaus Ruehle released Mr Mzoudi immediately as there was no case left for him to answer. Last-ditch attempts by the prosecution to implicate him failed and he was formally acquitted today.

After announcing the verdict, Judge Ruehle told Mr Mzoudi that he had no reason to celebrate. He said that Mr Mzoudi had been acquitted because the evidence had not been sufficient to secure a conviction, not because the court was convinced of his innocence.

What implications does this verdict have?

Mounir el-Motassadeq, who is a friend of Mr Mzoudi, was convicted using very similar circumstantial evidence and given a maximum jail sentence of 15 years in February last year.

At the time the conviction was hailed as setting a precedent, because it was thought that it demonstrated that entire terror networks could be dismantled using these charges. This was significant because many people assist these cells, providing housing, money and all sorts of logistical support.

El-Mossadeq is now appealing against his conviction, and given today's acquittal and the Binalshibh letter, it is likely that the case against him will also unravel. The prosecution in the Mr Mzoudi case will await the appeal verdict, due on March 4, before deciding whether to lodge its own appeal against Mr Mzoudi's acquittal.

Are there any other implications?

The verdict raises the question of whether conspiracy charges can be used to unravel the network that was responsible for the September 11 attacks.

Conspiracy charges are about all that can be used to bring convictions against terrorist networks.

Anti-terror legislation has been tightened and standards of evidence lowered across the world since the attacks, so it should be easier to secure convictions against terrorists and their supporters. But the fact is, after today's acquittal, that even these measures appear not to be enough.

What else do we know of Mr Mzoudi?

He is a Moroccan who was a friend and colleague of the Hamburg cell that plotted the suicide attacks on New York. Along with other members of the Hamburg cell, he was a student of electrical engineering at Hamburg Technical University. He also shared an apartment with them for a time. He is also a devout Muslim and a student of the Koran, having been taken to mosques by his father from the age of five.

What is the reaction to the trial and verdict?

Some of the families of September 11 victims were in court to hear the verdict, and were understandably upset. The German public, which has expected the acquittal since Mr Mzoudi's release in December, is baffled by the verdict. People cannot understand how one terror suspect can be convicted, yet only months later another can be acquitted, when the evidence against both of them is so similar.

==================
German court clears 9/11 suspect
Thursday, February 5, 2004 Posted: 8:54 AM EST (1354 GMT)

Mzoudi now wants to return to his studies in Hamburg.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/02/05/germany.terrortrial/

HAMBURG, Germany (CNN) -- A Moroccan man accused of assisting the September 11 hijackers has been cleared by a court in the German city of Hamburg due to a lack of evidence.

Abdel-Ghani Mzoudi was charged with more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder, based on the death toll in the suicide hijackings in the U.S, and being a member of a terrorist organisation, the Hamburg cell of al Qaeda.

The 31-year-old had faced up to 15 years in jail if convicted by the five-judge panel.

The court declared a verdict Thursday despite a last-minute request by lawyers for victims' families to delay it, citing alleged new evidence linked to the case of accused September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui in the United States.

Defense lawyers said Mzoudi had spent time at an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in 2000 and knew Hamburg cell members while they lived in the city, but denied he was involved in the 9/11 plot.

German prosecutors had expected the acquittal because of a lack of evidence but continued to insist the accused was guilty. They could still appeal against the verdict to a higher court.

"For us it is clear Mzoudi is part of the Islamistic scene in Hamburg," Heino Vahldieck, chief of the Hamburg Federal Criminal Office, told CNN. "He has been part of the scene, he is still part of the scene."

Terror experts are worried the case demonstrates the West is ill equipped to defend itself.

"It is a war. In a war situation you need special laws and al Qaeda finds that it can operate wonderfully well in the democratic free society because they can move about freely and the courts cannot convict them," M. J. Gohel of the Asia Pacific Foundation told CNN.

Lawyers for Mzoudi, who wants to return to study electrical engineering in Hamburg, said before the acquittal his problems would remain whether or not he was freed.

They said he was afraid German authorities could deport him to Morocco where U.S. agents could try to snatch him. Mzoudi is also aware, they say, of rumors that al Qaeda might try to liquidate him to ensure he never talks.

In Germany's other 9/11 case, Mzoudi's friend and fellow-Moroccan Mounir el Motassadeq was sentenced to 15 years in jail by the same Hamburg court last February. He is awaiting a ruling on an appeal. (Full story)

Meanwhile, after resisting the idea for months, the White House has granted an extension to U.S. lawmakers investigating the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Sources say the Bush administration had long opposed the move, fearing a negative judgment on the eve of the presidential election. (Full story)

-- CNN Senior International Correspondent Walter Rodgers contributed to this report

• Silverstein WTC Trial Starts Monday — Free Press International, Fri Feb 6 01:12
• Ricin, 911, and the 'Protocols' — Carmelita Gonzalez Alonso, Fri Feb 6 08:23