Sir Calumn
19-02-2003, 09:05:PM
Source: AOL News
HAMBURG, Germany (AP) - A Moroccan student was convicted Wednesday of more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder for helping Mohamed Atta and two other suicide pilots in the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, ending the first trial connected to the suicide hijackings.
Mounir el Motassadeq, 28, was sentenced to the maximum 15 years in prison for helping the Hamburg-based al-Qaida terror cell that included Atta, the lead hijacker and two other suicide pilots.
In addition to the 3,066 counts of accessory to murder, he was convicted of five counts of accessory to attempted murder and accessory to causing bodily injury. Those charges were added to allow five people wounded in the attacks, including a Naval officer at the Pentagon, to join the trial as co-plaintiffs.
El Motassadeq denied the charges during his 3 1/2-month trial, and his lawyers had demanded acquittal.
But Judge Albrecht Mentz sided with prosecutors' argument that a complex mosaic of evidence proved the defendant was ``a cog that kept the machinery going.''
``The accused belonged to this group since its inception,'' Mentz said in reading the verdict. ``He knew and approved the key elements of the planned attacks.''
El Motassadeq has acknowledged knowing six other alleged members of the Hamburg cell - Atta and two other suicide pilots, Ziad Jarrah and Marwan al-Shehhi; and organizers Ramzi Binalshibh, Said Bahaji and Zakariya Essabar. But he says he knew nothing of their plans.
While suspects in the plot detained in the United States face a possible death sentence if convicted, el Motassadeq's 15-year sentence will translate into a minimum of 10 years under German law.
The verdict was praised by relatives of Sept. 11 victims who joined the case as co-plaintiffs, as allowed under German law, and some of whom testified against el Motassadeq. Around 20 relatives and survivors joined the case.
Joan Molinaro of New York City, whose son Carl Molinaro was a firefighter killed at the World Trade Center, said she was ``thrilled.''
``I think it's the first small victory we've had since 9/11,'' Molinaro, who testified in the trial, told AP. ``I kind of feel like, 'OK Carl, we got one.' ... I think my son is smiling. We got one.''
Another New Yorker, Bill Doyle, who lost his son, Joseph, said he was ``pleased'' and that the prosecutors did an excellent job.
``German courts are a lot different, and the maximum over there is 15 years, so he got the maximum. In the U.S. courts, more than likely he would have gotten life,'' Doyle said.
``They wanted justice and they got justice,'' said Ulrich von Jeinsen, the lawyer who represented the Americans. ``They accept that we have another system and since he got the maximum sentence they will be satisfied.''
Presiding Judge Mentz said moving testimony by family members helped persuade the five-judge panel to deliver the maximum sentence - which might have otherwise been difficult for the court, which also considered that el Motassadeq is the father of two young children.
``This is a success in the fight against international terrorism,'' said Interior Minister Otto Schily. ``It is a warning to all those who think they can toy with the idea of aligning themselves with terrorist networks.''
Schily called the penalty ``very harsh.''
A slight, bearded man, el Motassadeq sat between his lawyers and showed no emotion as the verdict was read.
Prosecutors allege el Motassadeq used his power of attorney over al-Shehhi's bank account to pay rent, tuition and utility bills, allowing the plotters to keep up the appearance of being normal students in Germany. Prosecutors also pointed to the fact that he signed Atta's will.
Witnesses testified that el Motassadeq was as radical as the rest of the group, talking of jihad - holy war - and his hatred of Israel and the United States.
El Motassadeq himself admitted training in one of Osama bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan in 2000.
But he said he was simply providing an innocent service to friends and that he took weapons training in Afghanistan because he believed all Muslims should learn to shoot.
The prospect of el Motassadeq's imprisonment in Germany raised security fears even before the verdict. Terrorists might attempt hijackings or kidnappings to free him, said Bavaria's top security official, Interior Minister Guenter Beckstein.
The Hamburg case, coupled with a possible Iraq war, has led some German authorities to step up surveillance of likely suspects who might be planning attacks, though there is no evidence of any specific threats for now, Beckstein told ZDF television.
Germany's federal anti-crime agency said no nationwide measures were being taken, but the states were free to increase security.
El Motassadeq's lawyers tried several times unsuccessfully to obtain testimony by two of his friends, Ramzi Binalshibh and Mohammed Haydar Zammar - a lack of evidence that the lawyers say could be grounds for an appeal in case of a guilty verdict.
Binalshibh, a Yemeni suspect in U.S. custody, is believed to have been the Hamburg cell's key contact with al-Qaida. Zammar, an alleged al-Qaida recruiter in Hamburg, is in prison in Syria.
The court could not get the men released to testify and German authorities refused to turn over their files on the two, saying transcripts of their interrogations were provided to them on condition they only be used for intelligence purposes.
El Motassadeq, the son of a middle-class family, came to Germany in 1993 to study. By 1995, he was studying electrical engineering in Hamburg, where he is believed to have first met Atta by the following year.
I was suprised when I read this because I knew nothing about him until the sentence. I thought the sentence was quite fair though.
What do you guys think?
-C
HAMBURG, Germany (AP) - A Moroccan student was convicted Wednesday of more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder for helping Mohamed Atta and two other suicide pilots in the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, ending the first trial connected to the suicide hijackings.
Mounir el Motassadeq, 28, was sentenced to the maximum 15 years in prison for helping the Hamburg-based al-Qaida terror cell that included Atta, the lead hijacker and two other suicide pilots.
In addition to the 3,066 counts of accessory to murder, he was convicted of five counts of accessory to attempted murder and accessory to causing bodily injury. Those charges were added to allow five people wounded in the attacks, including a Naval officer at the Pentagon, to join the trial as co-plaintiffs.
El Motassadeq denied the charges during his 3 1/2-month trial, and his lawyers had demanded acquittal.
But Judge Albrecht Mentz sided with prosecutors' argument that a complex mosaic of evidence proved the defendant was ``a cog that kept the machinery going.''
``The accused belonged to this group since its inception,'' Mentz said in reading the verdict. ``He knew and approved the key elements of the planned attacks.''
El Motassadeq has acknowledged knowing six other alleged members of the Hamburg cell - Atta and two other suicide pilots, Ziad Jarrah and Marwan al-Shehhi; and organizers Ramzi Binalshibh, Said Bahaji and Zakariya Essabar. But he says he knew nothing of their plans.
While suspects in the plot detained in the United States face a possible death sentence if convicted, el Motassadeq's 15-year sentence will translate into a minimum of 10 years under German law.
The verdict was praised by relatives of Sept. 11 victims who joined the case as co-plaintiffs, as allowed under German law, and some of whom testified against el Motassadeq. Around 20 relatives and survivors joined the case.
Joan Molinaro of New York City, whose son Carl Molinaro was a firefighter killed at the World Trade Center, said she was ``thrilled.''
``I think it's the first small victory we've had since 9/11,'' Molinaro, who testified in the trial, told AP. ``I kind of feel like, 'OK Carl, we got one.' ... I think my son is smiling. We got one.''
Another New Yorker, Bill Doyle, who lost his son, Joseph, said he was ``pleased'' and that the prosecutors did an excellent job.
``German courts are a lot different, and the maximum over there is 15 years, so he got the maximum. In the U.S. courts, more than likely he would have gotten life,'' Doyle said.
``They wanted justice and they got justice,'' said Ulrich von Jeinsen, the lawyer who represented the Americans. ``They accept that we have another system and since he got the maximum sentence they will be satisfied.''
Presiding Judge Mentz said moving testimony by family members helped persuade the five-judge panel to deliver the maximum sentence - which might have otherwise been difficult for the court, which also considered that el Motassadeq is the father of two young children.
``This is a success in the fight against international terrorism,'' said Interior Minister Otto Schily. ``It is a warning to all those who think they can toy with the idea of aligning themselves with terrorist networks.''
Schily called the penalty ``very harsh.''
A slight, bearded man, el Motassadeq sat between his lawyers and showed no emotion as the verdict was read.
Prosecutors allege el Motassadeq used his power of attorney over al-Shehhi's bank account to pay rent, tuition and utility bills, allowing the plotters to keep up the appearance of being normal students in Germany. Prosecutors also pointed to the fact that he signed Atta's will.
Witnesses testified that el Motassadeq was as radical as the rest of the group, talking of jihad - holy war - and his hatred of Israel and the United States.
El Motassadeq himself admitted training in one of Osama bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan in 2000.
But he said he was simply providing an innocent service to friends and that he took weapons training in Afghanistan because he believed all Muslims should learn to shoot.
The prospect of el Motassadeq's imprisonment in Germany raised security fears even before the verdict. Terrorists might attempt hijackings or kidnappings to free him, said Bavaria's top security official, Interior Minister Guenter Beckstein.
The Hamburg case, coupled with a possible Iraq war, has led some German authorities to step up surveillance of likely suspects who might be planning attacks, though there is no evidence of any specific threats for now, Beckstein told ZDF television.
Germany's federal anti-crime agency said no nationwide measures were being taken, but the states were free to increase security.
El Motassadeq's lawyers tried several times unsuccessfully to obtain testimony by two of his friends, Ramzi Binalshibh and Mohammed Haydar Zammar - a lack of evidence that the lawyers say could be grounds for an appeal in case of a guilty verdict.
Binalshibh, a Yemeni suspect in U.S. custody, is believed to have been the Hamburg cell's key contact with al-Qaida. Zammar, an alleged al-Qaida recruiter in Hamburg, is in prison in Syria.
The court could not get the men released to testify and German authorities refused to turn over their files on the two, saying transcripts of their interrogations were provided to them on condition they only be used for intelligence purposes.
El Motassadeq, the son of a middle-class family, came to Germany in 1993 to study. By 1995, he was studying electrical engineering in Hamburg, where he is believed to have first met Atta by the following year.
I was suprised when I read this because I knew nothing about him until the sentence. I thought the sentence was quite fair though.
What do you guys think?
-C