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| Europe |
| Retrial Set for 9/11 Suspect in Germany |
| 2004-04-24 |
| The retrial of the only person ever convicted in the Sept. 11 attacks will begin at a Hamburg court in August, the Moroccan's lawyer said Friday. Mounir el Motassadeq, whose conviction on charges of aiding the Sept. 11 plotters was overturned by federal appeals judges in March, won his release from prison earlier this month after the Hamburg state court ruled that the evidence against him was too weak to hold him pending the retrial. The Hamburg court has now set the trial opening for Aug. 10, lawyer Josef Graessle-Muenscher said. The trial could last until the end of the year, he added. The court originally planned to start the retrial in June, but put back the date after consulting with both sides in the proceedings, Graessle-Muenscher said. El Motassadeq is charged with more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization. He was convicted on those charges in February 2003 and given the maximum 15-year prison sentence. However, a federal appeals court threw out the conviction and ordered a retrial, saying he was denied a fair trial because the U.S. government refused access to his friend Ramzi Binalshibh — a Yemeni captured in Pakistan on the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. The Hamburg court then ordered his release. El Motassadeq was ordered to stay in Hamburg and report to police twice a week. He was not required to post bail. El Motassadeq, 30, has acknowledged training at an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan and being |
| Posted by:Fred |