9/11 defendant's lawyer critically injured

The lawyer defending an accused accomplice of the September 11 suicide pilots at his Hamburg retrial has been critically injured in a motorbike accident, throwing into question how the case will proceed.

Josef Graessle-Muenscher suffered life-threatening injuries when he crashed his motorbike into the side of a car that swerved in front of him as he was trying to pass on a road near Hamburg, police said.

Rescue crews resuscitated Graessle-Muenscher, 58, at the scene before flying him to a hospital by helicopter.

Graessle-Muenscher has put up a spirited defence at the retrial of Mounir el Motassadeq over the past month, trying to prove that his client had no knowledge of the September 11 plot even though he was close to many of its principals.

The next session was set for Tuesday. Court spokeswoman Sabine Westphalen said the impact of the lawyer’s accident on the trial schedule would be discussed then.

Graessle-Muenscher was part of the legal team that won el Motassadeq a retrial in March when a German appeals court ruled that the Moroccan was unfairly denied evidence from US held al-Qaida suspects.

El Motassadeq is accused of aiding September 11 lead pilot Mohamed Atta and others in the Hamburg cell. He faces a possible 15 years in prison if re-convicted of more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organisation.