September 11 accused awaits verdict

A Moroccan who allegedly helped the September 11 hijackers but was freed on evidence suggesting he knew nothing of the plot awaited a verdict today in only the second trial anywhere for the attacks on the United States.

Abdelghani Mzoudi is charged with more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and belonging to a terrorist organisation, but his chances of acquittal have risen dramatically since the surprise evidence was presented in court in December.

In a last-minute move that could delay a verdict, a lawyer for American relatives of September 11 victims said he planned to enter a motion at today’s session. The lawyer, Andreas Schulz, refused to reveal details in advance.

Prosecutors were seeking the maximum 15-year prison sentence for Mzoudi, alleging he helped the Hamburg cell under lead hijacker Mohamed Atta conduct financial transactions and arranged housing to help members evade authorities’ attention.

Mzoudi’s lawyers acknowledged during the trial that he spent time at an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan in 2000 and knew Hamburg cell members while they lived and studied in the city, but says he was not involved in the plot.

The five-month trial has illustrated the difficulty of using circumstantial evidence to prove involvement in the loose and secretive structure of al-Qaida.

Last February, similar evidence secured the maximum sentence against Mzoudi’s friend Mounir el Motassadeq – the world’s first September 11 conviction.

But the Hamburg state court ordered Mzoudi freed on 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 Ramzi Binalshibh, the cell’s purported liaison with al-Qaida who is now in secret US custody.

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.