Court convicts friend of 9/11 hijackers

A GERMAN federal appeals court yesterday convicted a friend of three of the September 11 suicide pilots of accessory to murder for his role in their plot and sent the case back to a lower court for sentencing.

In a short statement, presiding Judge Klaus Tolksdorf said a Hamburg court’s decision to acquit Mounir el Motassadeq on thousands of counts of accessory to murder had been “changed” and that the appeals court had found him guilty.

El Motassadeq, currently sentenced to seven years in prison for membership of a terrorist organisation, now faces a total possible sentence of 15 years.