BERLIN, 8 December 2002 — The Saudi Embassy in Berlin has denied having any links to a Moroccan who is standing trial here over the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Der Speigel weekly reported in its forthcoming issue, to be published tomorrow.
In a letter to German investigators probing a potential link with the suspect, Saudi Embassy representatives said they had no knowledge of Mounir El-Motassadeq, Der Spiegel reported.
Detectives who searched Motassadeq’s flat last year turned up the business card of an official in the Saudi Embassy, whom Der Speigel identified as Mohammed Fahiki, a member of the embassy’s Islamic affairs section.
Police had also found numerous Saudi telephone numbers in Motassadeq’s notebook and computer.
Motassadeq, 28, the first man anywhere to stand trial for the Sept. 11 attacks, is charged with membership in a terrorist organization and being an accessory in the deaths of the more than 3,000 people in the 9/11 attack.
Prosecutors claim that he was a key background figure in a cell in Hamburg, northern Germany, allegedly involved in planning the suicide plane strikes.
Motassadeq has admitted knowing some of the hijackers, including suspected ringleader Mohammed Atta, but says he knew nothing of any plans for an attack.
