|
Germany springs Motassadeq
Mounir El Motassadeq, a Moroccan man convicted in August of membership in a terrorist organization and sentenced to seven years in prison, will be released, Hamburg's Justice Ministry said on Tuesday."I can confirm ... that he will be released," an official at the ministry told Reuters. Motassadeq, who was 31 years old at the time of his conviction, had been friends with three of the September 11, 2001 pilots when they lived in Hamburg. He was sentenced to jail after the second of two long trials. Germany's Federal Constitutional Court said in a statement it had upheld an appeal against Motassadeq's conviction, but the case would be revisited by the court that originally convicted him. "The case has been returned to the district court for a new decision," the court statement said. Prosecutors had originally demanded 15 years for "membership of a terrorist organization" and being an accessory to thousands of murders in the attacks on the United States in 2001. But the court ruled that said the second charge had not been proven. The court said Motassadeq was only a lower-tier member of the group of radical Arab students led by Mohamed Atta, the man who rammed the first hijacked plane into New York's World Trade Center. The evidence had suggested that al Qaeda leaders who assessed the group's members at an Afghan training camp had decided Motassadeq was unsuitable for the attacks on the United States and rejected him for a leading role. Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-02-07 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=141906 |