Student on trial over September 11 plot
A 28-year-old Moroccan student was today going on trial in Germany, charged with aiding the Hamburg terrorist cell involved in the September 11 attacks on the United States, which included lead suicide hijacker Mohammed Atta.
Prosecutors say Mounir el Motassadeq, the first September 11 suspect outside the United States to stand trial, was a key cell logistician. He could face life in prison if convicted on charges of belonging to a terrorist organisation and more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder.
El Motassadeq trained at an al Qaida camp in Afghanistan and helped the Hamburg cell with logistical support leading up to the September 11 attacks, prosecutors say. When terrorist pilots Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah left Hamburg in 2000 to begin flight training in Florida, el Motassadeq stayed behind, filtering money through an account to al-Shehhi in the United States, according to the indictment.
El Motassadeq admits close ties with members of the Hamburg cell, but he says he did not know their attack plans and never travelled to Afghanistan. He has told investigators he paid utility, rent and school bills for al-Shehhi, but transferred no money to the United States, said Hans Leistritz, one of his two lawyers.
For the trial’s opening, police blocked the busy street in front of the Hamburg superior court building in the centre of the sprawling port city and deployed extra officers. Metal detectors and guards were set up at the side entrances, the only way for visitors to enter.
“The security measures are at a high level,” said police spokesman Rolf Kunz, refusing to discuss further details of the precautions.
El Motassadeq, arrested in Hamburg two months after the attacks, is one of two men in German custody in connection with the September 11 attacks. Another Moroccan living in Hamburg, Abdelghani Mzoudi, was arrested this month on charges of supporting a terrorist organisation.
Germany’s chief federal prosecutor, Kay Nehm, has said the hijackers knew by October 1999 they would attack the United States with planes, but that the idea probably originated elsewhere in the al Qaida network.
All were united by “hatred of world Jewry and the United States”, Nehm said in unveiling el Motassadeq’s indictment in August.
El Motassadeq came to Germany in 1993 to study. By 1995, his German was good enough to win admission to a Hamburg technical university’s electrical engineering programme. In Hamburg, he met his wife Maria – a Russian who had converted to Islam three years before – and, during the same time, Atta and other future cell members.
El Motassadeq’s wife and his sister, who lives in Morocco, were expected to attend the trial. His father had wanted to come from Morocco, but the German foreign ministry rejected his visa for undisclosed reasons.
With more than 160 witnesses due to testify, the trial was expected to go beyond the three months of sessions scheduled so far. A panel of five judges will hear the case and lead the questioning, as is custom in Germany.
