Hamburg court clears 9/11 suspect
Abdelghani Mzoudi, aged 31, had no visible reaction as presiding Judge Klaus Ruehle read the verdict in Hamburg state court, keeping his arms folded and looking down at the floor.
Prosecutors had sought the maximum 15 years in prison on more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and membership of a terrorist organisation. Last February, similar evidence secured the maximum sentence against Mzoudi's friend Mounir el Motassadeq, the world's first September 11 conviction.
Federal prosecutors alleged Mzoudi provided logistical support to the Hamburg cell under lead hijacker Mohamed Atta, helping with financial transactions and arranging housing for members to evade authorities'.
Mzoudi spent time at a terrorist camp in Afghanistan in 2000.
Mzoudi's lawyers denied the charges, saying that while their client was friends with many of the September 11 principals, he knew nothing of the plot to attack the United States.
The acquittal on all counts came after the court rejected a dramatic last-minute motion from a lawyer for relatives of American victims of the attacks. Lawyer Andreas Schulz said he had "new information" apparently incriminating Mzoudi from the US Department of Justice, but was "not authorised" to tell the court what it was. His motion urged the court to again ask US authorities for testimony by Ramzi Binalshibh, a Yemeni believed to be the Hamburg cell's key contact with al-Qaida.
US authorities persistently refused any access to the interrogation transcripts or Binalshibh himself, who has been in secret US custody since his capture in Pakistan on the one-year anniversary of the attacks.
Schulz said he believed there were signs that US authorities might recently be more willing to release evidence gained from Binalshibh.
Prosecutors had alleged Mzoudi helped the Hamburg cell under lead hijacker Mohamed Atta conduct financial transactions and arranged housing to help members evade authorities' attention.
But the court ordered Mzoudi freed December 11 after receiving a statement that said the only people in Hamburg who knew of the plot were hijackers Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah as well as Binalshibh.
The court, which said the statement's unnamed source appeared to be Binalshibh, decided it no longer had sufficient grounds to keep Mzoudi behind bars. It said there was no way to cross-examine the Yemeni so it had to take the statement at face value.
El Motassadeq's lawyers also focused on Binalshibh last week in seeking a retrial, telling a federal appeals court that he was denied a fair trial in Hamburg because Binalshibh did not testify. A ruling is expected in March.
The Mzoudi verdict was originally scheduled Jan. 22, but prosecutors secured a last-minute delay to allow testimony by a man claiming to be a former Iranian intelligence agent who implicated Mzoudi in the attacks.
German prosecutors are to appeal the acquittal, saying they believed he was still guilty of membership in a terrorist organistion.
Chief prosecutor Walter Hemberger said there were "numerous grounds" to suppose that Abdelghani Mzoudi was part of a terrorist group. "We will therefore lodge an appeal."
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