HAMBURG, 20 August 2005 — A Moroccan man accused of helping the Sept. 11 hijackers was convicted yesterday of membership in a terrorist organization, but acquitted of direct involvement in the attacks on the United States.
After a yearlong retrial, the Hamburg state court sentenced Mounir El-Motassadeq to seven years in prison for membership in the Al-Qaeda cell that included suicide pilots Mohamed Atta, Marwan Al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah.
It acquitted him of more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder, ruling the evidence did not show the 31-year-old was specifically involved in the Sept. 11 plot.
Motassadeq, a slight, bearded man, watched calmly as presiding Judge Ernst-Rainer Schudt announced the verdict, criticizing US authorities’ failure to give more evidence in the case.
The judge said Motassadeq became part of the Hamburg cell in 1999, before its leading members went to Afghanistan and were recruited for the Al-Qaeda attacks on the US.
The court found “indications that Motassadeq was not initiated in all the details,” Schudt said. “Our impression is that the defendant is too soft for such a task.”
Prosecutor Walter Hemberger welcomed the ruling against Motassadeq, who in 2003 became the first person anywhere to be convicted in connection with the attacks. However, he said he would file an appeal against his acquittal on accessory to murder charges.
Dominic Puopolo Jr. of Miami Beach, Florida, who lost his mother in the attacks and joined the trial as co-plaintiff, said he was “ecstatic” to see Motassadeq convicted — but added that he also would consider an appeal.
“I’m concerned that we’re missing something, but I don’t want to let it take away from today’s tremendous victory and to have put this dangerous man off the streets,” he said by telephone from his home in the United States.
Prosecutors had demanded conviction on all charges and the maximum sentence of 15 years in prison for Motassadeq. He was accused of helping pay tuition and other bills for cell members to allow them to live as students while they plotted the attacks.
He acknowledged he was close to the hijackers but insists he knew nothing of their plans. Defense lawyers criticized the lack of direct testimony from witnesses, including Ramzi Binalshibh, a key Sept. 11 suspect held by the United States.
At his first trial, Motassadeq was convicted on all charges and given the maximum sentence.
But a federal appeals court last year overturned the conviction, ruling he was unfairly denied testimony from Al-Qaeda suspects in US custody. Motassadeq was freed.
Defense lawyer Ladislav Anisic said he would appeal the new verdict, which he described as “a semi-acquittal.”
