The girlfriend of one of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers told a German court yesterday of their doomed love story as the trial of a Moroccan student allegedly linked to the plot resumed. Aysel Sengun, a 29-year-old doctor, said Ziad Jarrah was not a devout Muslim when they first met, but he changed after moving to the northern German city of Hamburg in 1997. That circle was led by Mohammed Atta, presumed ringleader of the hijackers who on Sept. 11, 2001, plowed two planes into the World Trade Center in New York and one into the Pentagon. Jarrah was on board a fourth plane that crashed in rural Pennsylvania after passengers fought back. He is believed to have been at the controls, as he was the only hijacker on board with flight training. Sengun was testifying on day two of the trial here of Abdelghani Mzoudi, a 30-year-old Moroccan accused of playing a key logistical role in preparations for the attacks. Mzoudi faces up to 15 years in jail if convicted of the charges of being an accessory to the murder of 3,066 people â based on the estimated death tolls of the attacks â and membership of a âterrorist organizationâ.
| "Terrorist organizations" like to "kill people." |
Prosecutors allege Mzoudi was a member of an Al-Qaeda cell in Hamburg that was led by Atta and which included Jarrah and Marwan Al-Shehhi, another of the hijackers, as well as other conspirators. Sengun, a confident and smartly dressed woman of Turkish origin, met Jarrah in 1996, but said he changed dramatically after moving the next year to Hamburg. âHe told me that I shouldnât dress immodestly,â she told the court. âWhen we met he was not nearly as religious but then he started letting his beard grow, following the dress rules (of Islam) and the rules of prayer."
| "That's when I knew his mind was going..." |
When asked by Judge Klaus Ruehle about Jarrahâs views on jihad or holy war, she said they did not speak about the subject often but that he had mentioned it on a number of occasions. âI didnât even know what it was â I had to ask some friends,â she said. Sengun, who is not suspected of prior knowledge of the attacks, said Jarrah kept her from meeting any of his friends in Hamburg.
| And probably that was as much to keep them from meeting her... |
She did not testify about the alleged role Mzoudi played in the Sept. 11 plot, but his lawyers focused on a key aspect of her testimony â how well she knew Jarrah. Asked by defense attorney Michael Rosenthal on that point, Sengun replied: âLooking back, I donât think I knew him. And yet I donât think there was anyone who knew him better than I did, not even his parents.â
| Very metaphysical. Sounds like he kept a few secrets from his lady love. She's probably wondering what else there was — not that it would compare with this little list of items... |
Mzoudiâs lawyers said on the opening day that they intended to show it was possible to know the members of the Hamburg group well without being involved in the conspiracy.
| "Yasss... To know them was to cover for them..." |
In 2000, Jarrah went for flight training in the United States, Sengun said. He stayed in touch with his girlfriend, and in January 2001 during a visit, he flew her in a plane to Key West in Florida, where she also observed him on a flight simulator, she testified. The last time they saw each other was in June 2001. They last spoke on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when he telephoned her.
| "G'bye, honey! I'm off to be an Islamic hero!" |
In evidence last year at the Hamburg trial of Mounir El Motassadeq, so far the only man worldwide to have been convicted over the attacks, Sengun said Jarrah told her three times during that phone call that he loved her. |