German court convicts 9/11 suspect


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KEHL AM RHEIN, Germany -- A German court Friday sentenced Mounir el-Motassadeq, a Moroccan man suspected of helping the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers, to seven years in prison for being a member of a terrorist organization.

Motassadeq, the first man to be convicted in connection with the attacks on New York and Washington in 2001, was acquitted, however, of directly aiding the masterminds of the attacks that killed some 3,000 people.

Germany's Interior Minister Otto Schily called the verdict "a clear sign for the determination of the German constitutional state in the fight against terrorism." Others, however, said the sentence was not stringent enough.

"It's only half a success," Kuno Boese, terrorism and interior security expert at Berlin's Free University said Friday in a telephone interview with United Press International. "Given the international importance of the case and the severity of the acts surrounding the man...I feel the sentence is low."

The verdict concludes a yearlong retrial, which has sparked controversy in the international legal community. Motassadeq was found guilty in February 2003 of assisted murder of the Sept. 11 victims and sentenced to 15 years in prison. An appeals court, however, overturned the verdict and freed him on the grounds the trial featured questionable evidence, and that U.S. authorities had refused to allow the questioning of al-Qaida suspects linked to el Motassadeq.

For the second trial, which took place in Hamburg, U.S. authorities sent faxes with testimonies from key members of the so-called Hamburg cell, which allegedly planned the Sept. 11 attacks and included the three suicide pilots Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah. Motassadeq fostered close contacts with the hijackers, for whom the 31-year-old handled money transfers and did small logistical favors. The skinny, bearded man prayed and studied with the suicide pilots at Hamburg's Technical University.

A summary of the testimony of Ramzi Binalshibh, a key Sept. 11 suspect held by U.S. officials, was sent to Hamburg, but it did not include the full report of the interrogation nor did U.S. officials allow Binalshibh to appear before the German court.

The summary of his statements aided Motassadeq, but German authorities would have liked to question the man themselves -- prosecutors believe Binalshibh lied to protect his friend Motassadeq.

"The case shows that much has to be done to improve our legal system to effectively and rightfully try potential terrorists," Boese said.

Intelligence communication between the United States and Germany has to be improved, and a more effective exchange of evidence between American intelligence and German authorities needs to be fostered, Boese said.

"Terrorism has become international," Boese said. "We need to better cooperate with our international partners to effectively fight terrorism."

Apart from international cooperation, much has to be done on the home front, where evidence gathered by intelligence often does not make its way into court. The reason: A combination of citizen rights and officials' fears of publishing and thus losing their sources, Boese said. He told UPI, however, he knows that officials in Germany's Interior Ministry and Justice Ministry are working to update the country's legal system after recent setbacks in the Motassadeq case.

"That's good. We can't be the laughing stock of our EU neighbors any longer."

Citizens' rights have to be highly valued, he said, but should be reexamined in the light of a new threat.

"We have some of the most liberal laws in Europe -- it should be no surprise that terrorism-related incidents in the Netherlands and Spain can be traced back to Germany," Boese said. "Germany is a haven of retreat for potential extremists."

German police and intelligence hardly cooperate, he said.

"The 60-year-old command of separation between police and intelligence is not timely anymore."

To prevent a centralization of intelligence in the hands of possibly radical executive, the drafters of the German constitution separated and diversified several intelligence services on a federal and state-wide level. Police and intelligence, they said, should never be able to work together closely or even bond, as happened with the German Gestapo during Hitler's Third Reich.

A nationwide anti-terror file with access for all authorities, including those at the state-level, should be installed, Boese said, so that police and intelligence authorities can work together to combat terrorism.

"We live in a matured and stable democracy," Boese said. "Our first priority has to be security."

Critics of Boese's position -- including lawmakers of Germany's Free Democratic Party, a potential junior coalition partner for the next government -- say, however, that Germany's Social Democrats have already undermined too many citizen rights to fight terrorism.

Some even anticipated an Motassadeq-acquittal on both charges, as happened to his friend and fellow Moroccan Abdelghani Mzoudi, who was tried on identical charges, but acquitted last year.

Several other international terrorism cases will likely come to an end soon: The only person charged in the United States in connection with the attacks, Zacarias Moussaoui, pleaded guilty in April.

In Spain, a court is expected to deliver a verdict next month in a case against alleged members of a Spanish al-Qaida terror cell.

The case of Motassadeq, however, is likely to keep German courts busy for a bit longer. The Moroccan's defendants have announced they will appeal the decision.

"We want complete acquittal for our client," defense attorney Ladislav Anisic Friday told German public broadcaster ZDF.

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