Germany releases only jailed 9/11 suspect

[2Sheds_Jackson]

AP-

HAMBURG, Germany — The only Sept. 11 suspect convicted was freed by a court Wednesday, pending the outcome of his retrial on charges of aiding the Hamburg Al Qaeda cell that included three of the suicide pilots.

Mounir el Motassadeq, 30, smiled broadly as he left the Hamburg state prison where he had been held since November 2001. He walked past reporters without comment before his friends and lawyer whisked him away in a car to an unknown location.

Lawyer Josef Graessle-Muenscher said el Motassadeq was returning to his wife and two children in Hamburg.

"When I went to pick him up, he was happy and smiling at me," the lawyer told reporters. "Now he's going home to his family."

Explaining the decision, judges said their suspicion that Mounir el Motassadeq could be guilty of more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder had lessened. He was ordered to stay in Hamburg and report to police twice a week.

El Motassadeq, 30, has acknowledged training at an Al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan and being friends with Hamburg-based hijackers Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah, but denies any knowledge of the Sept. 11 plot.

He has been serving a maximum 15-year prison term in a Hamburg prison since a court in the city convicted him in February 2003 of giving logistical help to the Al Qaeda cell. He was expected to be released later Wednesday.

The decision was a fresh setback for prosecutions of Sept. 11 suspects after the same Hamburg court acquitted el Motassadeq's friend and fellow Moroccan Abdelghani Mzoudi of identical charges in February.

An appeals court last month threw out el Motassadeq's conviction and ordered a retrial starting June 16, saying he was denied a fair trial because the U.S. government refused access to a key witness in its custody.

He still faces charges of membership in a terrorist organization, court spokeswoman Sabine Westphalen said. But the original arrest warrant's "urgent suspicion" that he was guilty of being an accessory to murder was downgraded Wednesday to "adequate suspicion," she said.

Prosecutors say el Motassadeq was privy to the plot to attack the United States and helped cell members conceal their involvement while they lived and studied in Hamburg.

They say the former electrical engineering student took care of financial matters for alleged cell member Zakariya Essabar. He also is accused of helping cell members elude the watch of authorities by finding them a room in student housing and allowing al-Shehhi and Atta to use his Hamburg mailing address while they took flying lessons in the United States.

The federal court that threw out his conviction last month cited the absence of testimony by Ramzi Binalshibh. The Yemeni, captured in Pakistan on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and now in U.S. custody, is believed to have been the Hamburg cell's main contact with Usama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network.

Binalshibh might be able to testify that el Motassadeq knew nothing of the plot, the Moroccan's lawyers say.

Federal prosecutors can appeal the decision to free el Motassedeq until his appeal. The Hamburg court said the risk that el Motassadeq could flee was lessened by the conditions of his release, which bar him from obtaining a passport and require him to live in the same apartment as his wife and notify the court of any change of residence.

New evidence that could help el Motassadeq at his retrial emerged at a Hamburg court hearing Friday where lawyers sought his release.

The court was presented with an intercepted 2003 telephone call in which suspected cell member Said Bahaji told his wife that he and others close to the hijackers knew nothing of the planned attacks. Also presented was a 2002 letter from Bahaji to his mother in which he wrote "Mounir didn't know anything," an attorney said.

German authorities say Bahaji, a suspected cell logistician, left Germany shortly before the Sept. 11 attacks and remains on the run.

El Motassadeq lived with his wife and children in an apartment near Hamburg's Technical University, where he studied before his November 2001 arrest. His attorney said he is expected to resume living with his family at a different location that he would not disclose.

The absence of testimony from Binalshibh also helped bring about Mzoudi's acquittal in February.

Mzoudi's case turned in his favor when the Hamburg court heard a statement from an unidentified source that only Binalshibh and the suicide hijackers knew of the Sept. 11 plot — which could also exonerate el Motassadeq. The court said it believed the source was Binalshibh himself.

Nice, so even though the source could have been Bin Laden, Ronald McDonald or Nancy Reagan, they believe it to be Binalshibh. Of course, he's also implicated in this - so why exactly would he be believed anyway? Way to go German court system!

[Haiw]

Too bad you fail to note that one of the main reasons the German court had a hard time making a case was because the US failed ot hand over any evidence they had... :roll:

[cut]

Way to go German court system!

indeed a fair trial is of little importance, besides, he's only being released on bail pending a retrial, if he is guilty he will be convicted.

[Uncle Sam]

Too bad you fail to note that one of the main reasons the German court had a hard time making a case was because the US failed ot hand over any evidence they had... :roll:

Really?? Is there somewhere that you can point me to for your info...

[Haiw]

Not at the moment; got that from television.

[Haiw]

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/04/07/motassadeq.retrial/index.html
Still some of it in that article; they basically had to let him go because he was denied a fair trial because the US refused acces to a key witness in its custody.

[HELEX]

The last word isnt spoken in that case, only one point was rejected because of lacking evidence. He will get another trial because of membership in a terroristic organisation.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/rdonlyres/CF5D36A0-34AF-4021-95DF-B6B43FB156AF/33962/FB8E364CAC4846219060848418163DE8.jpg



The only man jailed over the September 11 attacks has been freed in Germany pending a forthcoming retrial.



The Moroccan Munir al-Mutassadiq was sentenced by a German court to 15 years in 2003 for conspiring to murder about 3000 people in the 2001 plane attacks in the United States. The same court ruled on Wednesday he should be released .



But he will not be allowed to leave the city of Hamburg before his retrial, expected to begin in June, and must report regularly to police, a representative of his lawyer, Gerhard Strate, said.



The 29-year-old had also been found guilty of belonging to a German al-Qaida cell that included three of the hijackers.



"Mr Mutassadiq will go free today, but not without conditions," court spokeswoman Sabine Westphalen told German television. Al-Mutassadiq will have to appear in court when asked and will not be given his confiscated passport back, she said.



Major setback



Germany's Supreme Court ordered the new trial a month ago.



Al-Mutassadiq's release is likely to be seen by the US and Germany as a major setback in Washington's "war on terror".



Prosecutors had described him as a "vital cog" in the September 11 plot.



"Mr Mutassadiq will go free today, but not without conditions"

Sabine Westphalen,
court spokeswoman


Al-Mutassadiq's lawyers have argued that new evidence, which secured the acquittal of al-Mutassadiq's friend and fellow Moroccan Abd Al-Ghani Mzudi on similar charges, also made their client's conviction unreliable.



They said a retrial could prompt Washington to release more information.



Core group



Mzudi's acquittal in February hinged on information, passed to the court by German investigators, that neither he nor al-Mutassadiq had belonged to a core group of plotters in Hamburg who had advance knowledge of the hijack plans.



The information was presumed to have come from US questioning of Ramzi bin al-Shaiba, a key al-Qaida suspect and member of the Hamburg cell, who is in US custody. The trial judge said the court could not assess its reliability, but that it had to give Mzudi the benefit of the doubt.



Al-Mutassadiq insists he had no knowledge of the September 11 plot and did no more than help fellow Muslims living abroad.



He did, however, acknowledge that he had been trained at an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan.

[Soulhunter]

It's true, they wanted evidence from a guy who's being held in Guantanamo, but the US didn't let them talk to him. Therefore they had to let him go. I could give you a source but I would have to search for it.

[TriggerPuller]

Re trial my ass!! who is watching this guy now that he is out. I bet he will be gone and nobody,especially the germans,will be able to ever find this POS again! Complete and utter BS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TP

[SwissGrenadier]

i totally agree with trigger puller

unfortunately,you can't expect anything of a country ruled by ex DDR communists (die grünen) and losers, baader meinhof supporters,draft resisters (SPD).

but next time the christian democrats will win and we won't have to endure those idiots anymore :D

just look at him, what a **** head :fork:

http://www.china-a.de/cn/dgyd/d2/d107.jpg

[Truthsayer]

For the love of God, enforce age-limit on this board NOW!

[Flagg]

Re trial my ass!! who is watching this guy now that he is out. I bet he will be gone and nobody,especially the germans,will be able to ever find this POS again! Complete and utter BS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Maybe they shoved a GPS tracking device up his bum...one can only hope

[Rantanplan]

unfortunately,you can't expect anything of a country ruled by ex DDR communists (die grünen)

Die Grünen is a west german party :cantbeli: :roll:

[Haiw]

Re trial my ass!! who is watching this guy now that he is out. I bet he will be gone and nobody,especially the germans,will be able to ever find this POS again! Complete and utter BS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TP
He isn't free; he's to stay in Hamburg, etc. etc. He's still on the leash to be back for a second trial.

[SwissGrenadier]

yes die grünen is a west german party BUT a lot of their members are ex sed members or at least communists

example Jürgen Trittin

[HELEX]

Alwais funny to hear the swiss point of view about german politics. rofl

[SwissGrenadier]

ahahahahahaha helex i happen to be half german

[California Joe]

Maybe a German could volunteer to eat him. And one of the Swedes could bugger his dog.

[German_American]

I like Helmut Khol (spelling)

[Rantanplan]

yes die grünen is a west german party BUT a lot of their members are ex sed members or at least communists

example Jürgen Trittin

He is a west german and was allready polititian in west germany befor the reunification. :roll:

[SwissGrenadier]

so there weren't any communists in west germany?

Trittin was a member of the Kommunitischen Bund (communist federation)
in west germany

[Rantanplan]

He was a kid when he was in this organisation. Now he's grown up member of a democratic party (Like millions other germans).

[Haiw]

*starting countdown clock untill someone mentions Joska Fishers affiliations with RAF guys a looooooooooooooong time ago*

[Truthsayer]

This thread is going down-hill fast...

[SwissGrenadier]

this to be honest i don't know. i thought that he was in there when he was a student.but what's for sure is that the green party along with the spd have ruined germany.the have ruined the german american relation.they have ruined the economy (ver.di etc). and in fact the great majority of people who voted for them a few years ago are against them nowadays.recently the spd lost again 20000 members etc.

i admit that the CDU isn't perfect, but i'm sure they're much better than the spd or the greens who annoy everyone with their dosenpfand.


california joe, good one.except that you should be thankful to my dog since he sent neil armstrong to the moon ;)

[Haiw]

i admit that the CDU isn't perfect, but i'm sure they're much better than the spd or the greens who annoy everyone with their dosenpfand.
That's what a lot of people thought when they elected the Dutch equivalent of the CDU. Boy were they wrong... :|

[SwissGrenadier]

Haiw,

when joschka fischer threw stones on the police 30 years ago that's ok

but when someone has been a nazi 30 years ago than it's scandaleous


i am not a nazi at all, to be honest i hate them.but these are double standards

[Rantanplan]

Acctualy the CDU ruined our country and the SPD/Grünen try to manage the mess (Not very sucsesful indeed).

[Rantanplan]

Haiw,

when joschka fischer threw stones on the police 30 years ago that's ok

but when someone has been a nazi 30 years ago than it's scandaleous


i am not a nazi at all, to be honest i hate them.but these are double standards

It's Ok to forgive an former member of the Nazi Party who build Rocket that destroid London and use his Picture as an Avartar but it's not Ok to forgive some Kids that thought they fight against Nazis?

[SwissGrenadier]

to a certian extent you are right.that's why i say the cdu isn't perfect.kohl made quite a few mistakes.but i think that one should really give the cdu the chance to "repair" germany and about 80% of the germans think the same.(according to ntv polls)

[SwissGrenadier]

wernher von braun was american when this photo was taken.and i admire him NOT because he was someone who collaborated with the nazis (he didn't like the nazi politics, he collaborated with them because he wanted to build rockets which he couldn't do at home), but because he changed the world! he was the person who made space travel possible!THAT'S why i admire him.

[HELEX]

Acctualy the CDU ruined our country and the SPD/Grünen try to manage the mess (Not very sucsesful indeed).

Das meinst du doch wohl nicht ernst oder? 1989 hatten wir erstmals einen ausgeglichenen Bundeshaushalt in der Geschichte der Republik. Und das nicht unter der SPD...

Schröders behauptung nicht alles anders aber vieles besser machen zu wollen hat sich ja wohl sehr schnell ins Gegenteil verkehrt. Mal abgesehen davon das bei der letzten wahl die Bevölkerung vom Medienkanzler über den Ernst der Lage belogen worden ist während Stoiber(den auch ich nicht mag) sehr wohl gesagt hat das es hart werden wird.

Oh Gott, lassen wir die deutsche Politik hier raus. Bitte!

[Rantanplan]

to a certian extent you are right.that's why i say the cdu isn't perfect.kohl made quite a few mistakes.but i think that one should really give the cdu the chance to "repair" germany and about 80% of the germans think the same.(according to ntv polls)

How? They have no political program.
Btw. ca. 60% after the more serious ZDF pools.

[Rantanplan]

Acctualy the CDU ruined our country and the SPD/Grünen try to manage the mess (Not very sucsesful indeed).

Das meinst du doch wohl nicht ernst oder? 1989 hatten wir erstmals einen ausgeglichenen Bundeshaushalt in der Geschichte der Republik. Und das nicht unter der SPD...

And whats with the years 1990-98?

[SwissGrenadier]

they have no political program?

the "CDU regierten Bundesländer" have the less unemployment, the best education, the best economy. so they must be doing something right.

[Rantanplan]

they have no political program?

the "CDU regierten Bundesländer" have the less unemployment, the best education, the best economy. so they must be doing something right.

And which countries are this?

[SwissGrenadier]

for example bavaria

[HELEX]

And whats with the years 1990-98?

I have a very difficult question for you: What happened in Germany around 1990? :cantbeli:

[SwissGrenadier]

wenn die frage an mich gerichtet ist zb der fall der mauer

[Rantanplan]

And whats with the years 1990-98?

I have a very difficult question for you: What happened in Germany around 1990? :cantbeli:

Yes and who mismanaged it?

[HELEX]

Nein, die Frage war an den Erkenntnisresistenten Herrn Sozialdemokraten gerichtet.

[HELEX]

Yes and who mismanaged it?

Mismanaged compared to what? What makes you believe the SPD had managed it better? I could also be worse....

[Rantanplan]

Or maybe no reunification like Oskar Lafontain wanted it? Imagine: A powerehouse West germany and thriving east germany.

[TriggerPuller]

Alwais funny to hear the swiss point of view about german politics. rofl Yeah kinda like listening about your views on the US asswipe!!! Dont like it when the shoe is on the other foot do you?

TP

[HELEX]

Glaubst du die CDU hatte nicht die selben visionen wie der Saarlandlenin?

Schröder hatte jetzt 6 Jahre zeit, da zieht das "andere sind schuld" Argument langsam nicht mehr.

[Haiw]

Bla bla bla seit wann sind wir DeutschePolitik punkt de? :P

[SwissGrenadier]

this post became a bit off topic,sorry 2sheds jackson.once again the german government screwed things up.that's all i have to say.

good night everyone :)

[Truthsayer]

What does german politicians (goverment) has to do with a trial, tr0ll-boy?

[AndyS]

@ Truthsayer: i would say the policy on foreigners...
but if you don't know the politic situation in germany it's hard to understand (i don't even completely understand it)

so i got to go to bed cause im drunk...

[Truthsayer]

Yeah, but I was under the impression the thread was about the trial and not imigrants and so on, in Germany...

Hopefully politicians don't run the trials (yet) in Germany anyway. :)

(Apart from politically apointed judges, but most countries have them.)

[steel bonnet]

Well getting this BACK ON THREAD.

I alas don`t think he`ll attend the retrial.
Terrorist at best/supporter at least is TRUELY going to stick around & wait for the retrial,don`t think so.

Once again we see that the Western World is frightened to do ANYTHING were Islamics are concenerned,for fear of NOT being liked.

Well he broke the law/Supported the guys doing it,so DAMN him,no matter colour or religion.

It`s truely getting silly now where the Western world is being dictated too,on what they can & cannot do to Islamic people.

Aren`t we ALL supposed to be equal in this day & age??

Yet the race/religion card keeps coming up & it`s NOT your Skinhead THUG doing it,rather the Islamic people themselves.

Anyway he`s probably back in the MidEast now or enroute,curtasy of Terrorist funded lawers.

Ja
Steel Bonnet

[MetalBoy]

Hopefully they implanted a device on his heart that will blow up if he leaves the city.

Seriously though, anybody want to set up a bounty fund to pay whoever kills this bastard, shouldn't be that hard since he has to meet with the police on a regular basis. How's the bounty hunter business in Germany now a days?

[Webley]

when joschka fischer threw stones on the police 30 years ago that's ok


He did more than just throw stones at the police. The man was involved with the Baader-Meinhof Gang to some degree. Just goes to show that this German government is polluted with communists.

[Webley]

This Islamic terrorist is not a matter for German law enforcement. Especially not when this radical regime in Berlin is attempting to sabotauge the war on Islamic terrorism.

Better that this terrorist is out on the streets in Germany so that the Mossad can scoop him up.

[Webley]

What does german politicians (goverment) has to do with a trial, tr0ll-boy?

1.) They want access to the detainees in Guantomino so as to compromise the intelligence gathered on the Islamic terrorists.

2.) German law does not have a suitable punishment for terrorists (death), so the German government is actually protecting the terrorist by making it a law enforcement issue.

3.) The radical regime in Germany is hostile to the USA and its allies. The people in power are the aging Baader-Meinhoff terrorists, their supporters, and other communist filth. Their intentions are to sabotauge the US and its allies in the war on Islamic terrorism.

[the_spec]

Webley, you're from London. Last time I looked that was in England, so I suggest you STFU about german politics, 'cause you probably don't know **** about it.
If you don't like democratic values and a fair judical system, then that's rather your fault, not the fault of the german government.

[Webley]

Fair judicial system? rofl

[the_spec]

Yep, that's a way to discuss... :roll:

[Mr Gently Benevolent]

Webley, you're from London.
Nah its Sixgun. :)

[Rantanplan]

rofl rofl rofl rofl rofl rofl rofl

This Thread is great!

Webley, you are a real joker.

rofl rofl rofl rofl rofl rofl rofl

[Mark Sman]

Ahem . . . gentlemen, the decorum if you will please.
That being said, the hell with you all.
All of you. Each and every single one. So there.


Webley
2.) German law does not have a suitable punishment for terrorists (death),

Webley=location: London. London law=UK
UK law= no death penalty.
right? Like even for the, ostensibly human, beings that did Omagh?

Hey, I'm just asking. As I've said before, save the flames for your marshmellows.

[Mr Gently Benevolent]

Ahem . . . gentlemen, the decorum if you will please.
That being said, the hell with you all.
All of you. Each and every single one. So there.


Webley
2.) German law does not have a suitable punishment for terrorists (death),

Webley=location: London. London law=UK
UK law= no death penalty.
right? Like even for the, ostensibly human, beings that did Omagh?

Hey, I'm just asking. As I've said before, save the flames for your marshmellows.

Mark little Webley is an American.

[HELEX]

Mark little Webley is an American.

Webley is an Sixgun ;)

[Truthsayer]

Webley=Sixgun=KKK Fascist American.

Funny how he is giving his real identity away again and again...

[cut]

this is what pissed me off about that idiot pretending to be english, how come that username hasn't been banned anyway.