Germany vows to withhold Moussaoui death penalty evidence from the US

GERMANY has told US officials it will withhold evidence against Zacarias Moussaoui unless it is assured it will not be used to secure a death penalty against him.

US investigators believe Moussaoui, who was arrested on immigration charges before September 11, was meant to be the 20th hijacker in the attacks in New York and Washington.

However, Germany has insisted it cannot bend its laws forbidding supplying evidence that could incriminate someone facing execution. Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin told the Der Spiegel magazine that Germany would provide documents on Moussaoui to the US only on condition that they “may not be used for a death sentence or an execution”: “At the moment, the United States are examining our answer and will then get back to us.”

A spokesman for the US Justice Department had no immediate comment.

German prosecutors have said Moussaoui received money for flight school fees from a member of a terrorist group based in Hamburg

Outlawing the death penalty is a requirement for membership of the 15-member European Union. Moussaoui, 34, was arrested last summer at a flight school in Minnesota and became the first person to be charged directly in connection with the attacks.

He is being held in custody pending his trial in January. US law enforcement officials have said Moussaoui received two money transfers from Ramzi Binalshibh who lived with suicide pilot Mohamed Atta in Hamburg and wanted to take part in the hijackings, but was unable to secure a visa.

German prosecutors this week announced that they had charged another suspect, Mounir El Motassadeq, with belonging to a terror group and 3,000 counts of being an accessory to murder for his alleged support for the Hamburg terror cell.