HAMBURG, Germany, 20 February 2003 — A German court jailed a Moroccan student for 15 years yesterday for being an accessory to the murder of more than 3,000 people in the world’s first trial over the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mounir El-Motassadeq, 28, was also convicted of attempted murder, grievous bodily harm and membership of a terrorist organization for his role in what investigators called an Al-Qaeda cell in this northern German port city.

Prosecutors and lawyers representing 21 relatives of the victims had demanded the maximum sentence of 15 years.

“The families of the victims will be satisfied with the sentence,” said Andreas Schulz, an attorney representing the relatives.

Motassadeq’s defense team, which had argued for an acquittal, told reporters that they would appeal the conviction, calling the case against him “inconclusive”.

Interior Minister Otto Schily called the verdict “tough but fair” and a “victory for international war on terrorism”.

“In the name of the people we have found the accused, Mounir El-Motassadeq, guilty,” presiding judge Albrecht Mentz said before reading out the sentence.

It was the first ever verdict in any trial linked to the 2001 attacks in New York, Washington and rural Pennsylvania.

Mentz said Motassadeq had been a founding member in the late 1990s of the Hamburg cell of six extremists which included the alleged ringleader of the group, the Egyptian Mohammed Atta, and two other hijackers.

Although the accused was not directly involved in carrying out the attacks, Motassadeq’s job was to act as “a rear guard” for the others, to cover up their whereabouts and handle money transfers, Mentz said. “He knew the essential details of the attack, and approved of them,” Mentz added. By doing so, he was accepting the deaths of thousands of people.

The judge said the Hamburg group regarded the United States and Israel “as a permanent thorn in the flesh.”

“They wanted to strike at the political and economic power in front of the whole world and to expose it as powerless.”

The married father of two, wearing a striped flannel shirt, displayed no reaction as the verdict was announced and occasionally shook his head in disbelief during the two-hour-long reading of the judgment.

Security was tight at the court. Police had blocked off streets outside on the eve of the hearing, which was attended by 100 journalists from around the world.

The German press had raised concerns that an acquittal or mild sentence might worsen trans-Atlantic relations, already at a low point over differences on Iraq.

During the four-month trial, which also included wrenching testimony by American relatives of the victims, the court had tried to establish whether he was a helpful, naive friend who let himself be exploited by the hijackers or whether he was in on the plot.

Mentz said the evidence showed the conspiracy was in place by early 1999.

He highlighted testimony by a German convert to Islam who had lived in a dormitory with members of the cell and who said he overheard Motassadeq tell a friend at that time: “They want to do something big. The Jews will burn and we will dance on their graves.”

The witness also heard Motassadeq say, when he was standing in a room with Atta: “This is our pilot.” Atta is believed to have ploughed the first plane into the World Trade Center.