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| 9/11 relatives confront conspirator |
| 2003-12-04 |
| A woman, whose brother was the jetliner pilot killed before hijackers crashed it into the Pentagon on September 11, appealed to a German court today to give an accused conspirator the maximum sentence if he is convicted. New Yorker Debra Burlingame was one of four relatives of 9/11 victims who travelled to Hamburg to testify in the trial of Moroccan Abedelghani Mzoudi. They were seeking to bolster the prosecutionâs case by speaking about their losses. Ms Burlingameâs brother, Charles Burlingame, died just short of his 52nd birthday. âHe always wanted to do the right thing, and he was slaughtered like an animal,â she told the five judge panel. âIn view of the nature of the crimes the defendant is accused of aiding and abetting, I respectfully ask that if he is convicted, he be sentenced to the maximum penalty available, 15 years. That is less than two days in prison for each victim.â More than 20 Americans have formally joined the prosecution as co-plaintiffâs against Mzoudi, only the second 9/11 suspect to stand trial anywhere. He is accused of more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organisation for allegedly giving logistical aid to the three suicide hijackers who lived and studied in Hamburg. More than two years after the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, prosecutors said the relativesâ testimony is important to illustrate the attacksâ human cost. âItâs a very technical trial, and I think itâs important to add a face to the case,â said lawyer Sven Leistikow, who represents two of the relatives testifying. As Joan Molinaro, of New York, told of how her firefighter son Carl Molinaro died while saving people from the World Trade Centre, a woman in wept the public gallery wept. âI have watched my son die hundreds of times from the tapes on TV,â she said. âI still yell for Carl to run faster and I still search the faces in the crowd and hope this time he will get out but he never does.â Deena Burnett, whose husband Tom fought with hijackers on United Airlines Flight 93 in a struggle that crashed the airliner in rural Pennsylvania and prevented the terrorists from reaching their destination, could not stop herself from crying as she told how his death had affected their three young daughters. âI hear them talking to their dad by whispering to him at night,â said Burnett, of Little Rock, Arkansas. âThey stick crayon drawings to helium balloons and watch them drift up to heaven with their childrenâs belief that an angel will take them to Tom.â Bostonâs Dominic Puopolo was the first in his family to learn his mother, Sonia , had died in one of the flights that hit the World Trade Centre and recalled the devastating duty of having to tell his father and siblings. He said that day he swore to make sure people understood what the attacks meant to individuals. âIâve found myself stuck in a moment I canât get out of in my desire to participate in processes like this here today to see justice is brought to people of this world who defend their cowardly acts and hide behind a religion of peace.â Mzoudi, 30, is accused of providing logistical support to the Hamburg al-Qaida cell that included suicide pilots Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah. Prosecutors say he took care of financial transactions when cell members were out of the country, and helped conceal them from authorities when they were back in Germany. Mzoudi denies the charges. His attorneys have argued that while he was close to the members of the cell, he was unaware of their plans. |
| Posted by:Atrus |