German court clears Moroccan on 9/11 charge

A Hamburg court today acquitted a Moroccan man of helping the September 11 hijackers after rejecting a dramatic last-minute motion for new evidence by a lawyer for relatives of US victims of the attacks.

Abdelghani Mzoudi was cleared of more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and charges of belonging to a terrorist organisation.

Presiding Judge Klaus Ruehle said the five-judge court – which freed Mzoudi in December on evidence that suggested he had no knowledge of the plot to attack the US – had to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“Mr Mzoudi, you have been acquitted and this may be a relief to you, but it is no reason for joy,” said Ruehle.

“You were acquitted not because the court is convinced of your innocence, but because the evidence was not enough to convict you.”

Prosecutors had sought the maximum 15 years in prison. Last February, similar evidence secured the maximum sentence on the same charges against Mzoudi’s friend Mounir el Motassadeq – the world’s first September 11 conviction.

Prosecutors alleged that 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’ attention.

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 US.

The acquittal came after the court rejected a last-ditch motion from a lawyer for relatives of US 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, saying there were signs recently that they might release the information.

Rejecting the motion, Ruehle said he saw no evidence anything had changed.

The 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 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.