Unbelievable!!!??? Sept. 11 Suspect Bids for Release After Conviction Overturned~ Apr 2, 2004 0456EST
By David Rising
Associated Press Writer
HAMBURG, Germany (AP) - Attorneys for the only suspect ever convicted in the Sept. 11 attacks were optimistic ahead of a court hearing on Friday to ask for his release while he awaits a retrial.
Mounir el Motassadeq, 29, won a retrial last month when a federal appeals court faulted the United States' refusal to allow testimony from a key al-Qaida captive.
"I think we'll have a decision setting him free today," defense attorney Josef Graessle-Muenscher said as he arrived for Friday's closed-door hearing at the Hamburg state court, which el Motassadeq also was attending. "Then he'll be going home to his wife and children."
Court officials, however, said an immediate decision was unlikely and a ruling could come next week. El Motassadeq's retrial is scheduled to begin June 16.
He has been in custody since his Nov. 28, 2001, arrest. He is accused of aiding members of the Hamburg al-Qaida cell, which included three of the Sept. 11 hijackers, by handling financial transactions for them to help them appear like normal students as they plotted the attacks.
El Motassadeq was convicted in February 2003 of more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization and sentenced to the maximum 15 years in prison.
His lawyers sought his release after appeals court judges overturned the conviction, saying he was unfairly denied testimony from Ramzi Binalshibh, a Yemeni in secret U.S. custody who is believed to have been the Hamburg cell's key contact with al-Qaida.
U.S. authorities refused to allow Binalshibh to testify at the trial or to let German intelligence services turn over copies of interrogation reports the United States had provided them.
The absence of Binalshibh's testimony also helped bring about the acquittal of el Motassadeq's friend and fellow Moroccan Abdelghani Mzoudi on the same charges in February.
In the Mzoudi case, the Hamburg court heard a statement from an unnamed source that only Binalshibh and the suicide hijackers knew of the Sept. 11 plot. The court said it believed the source was Binalshibh himself.
At Friday's hearing, El Motassadeq's lawyers were expected to focus on the statement in arguing for his freedom.
Prosecutors refused to discuss their strategy, but they were likely to argue he is a flight risk.
"I believe that (the arrest warrant) will be upheld, but we will have to see," prosecutor Walter Hemberger said Friday.
El Motassadeq did not leave Germany around the time of the Sept. 11 attacks like other cell members - including Binalshibh. But prosecutors have said he tried, telling a Saudi diplomat and the imam of a Berlin mosque that he needed help in getting a new passport and visas.
El Motassadeq studied electrical engineering at Hamburg's Technical University until his arrest.
AP-ES-04-02-04 0456EST
This story can be found at: ap.tbo.com
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