HAMBURG, Germany, 25 October 2003 — Lawyers for a Moroccan accused of supporting the Hamburg cell of Sept. 11 suicide pilots demanded his release yesterday, claiming the head of Germany’s security agency had contradicted the government’s case.
The official, Heinz Fromm, testified at Abdelghani Mzoudi’s trial yesterday that the attacks were planned largely by Al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan, and that the Hamburg group first became involved when four members went to Afghan training camps in late 1999.
In their case against suspected cell helper Mzoudi, German federal prosecutors have said the Hamburg group coalesced into a terrorist cell by late summer 1999 and “devised the plan to kill thousands of people with hijacked airliners.”
This is “diametrically opposed” to the timeline sketched by Fromm, Mzoudi’s attorney Michael Rosenthal said in the Hamburg state court. The court did not immediately rule on the request to release his client.
Mzoudi, 30, is charged with 3,066 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization for allegedly aiding the Hamburg Al-Qaeda cell that included hijackers Mohamed Atta, Mohammed Al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah. Another Moroccan, Mounir El-Motassadeq, was sentenced in February to the maximum 15 years in prison on the same charges.
Before the three hijackers and Ramzi Binalshibh — believed to have been the group’s main contact with Al-Qaeda — traveled to Afghanistan, they “had decided to take part in military jihad (holy war) already in Hamburg,” Fromm testified.
Fromm confirmed comments he made to a German newspaper last month that, in Afghanistan, “they were recruited by the Al-Qaeda planners,” for the Sept. 11 plot “for their aims, because they knew English and knew how to get by in the Western world.”
German and US authorities have made clear they believe the 2001 attacks on the United States were planned outside Germany. Both suspects prosecuted in Germany went on trial for allegedly helping the terrorists — not plotting the attacks.
Evidence from two witnesses who were important in winning El-Motassadeq’s conviction suggested plans for the attacks already were under way by mid-1999. They also have testified in Mzoudi’s case.
Fromm testified he couldn’t rule out that the Hamburg cell had the idea of using planes as missiles before their trip to Afghanistan, but said there was no evidence before December 1999 of activities suggesting they planned to travel to the United States or take flight training.
Ahead of the 1999 trip, Fromm said, “they at least temporarily planned to go to Chechnya, but they went to Afghanistan instead.” He declined to elaborate.
