Germany releases jailed friend of 9/11 hijackers 07 Feb 2006 18:40:36 GMT Source: Reuters (Adds background, details)
By Louis Charbonneau
BERLIN, Feb 7 (Reuters) - A friend of the Sept. 11 hijack leaders, convicted on terrorism charges in Germany, was unexpectedly freed from jail on Tuesday pending the outcome of appeals against his sentence.
Mounir El Motassadeq, 31, was released from prison in Hamburg after the Constitutional Court upheld a defence motion that he be freed while the appeals process continues.
But he could yet return to jail if the separate federal court handling the appeals decides to uphold the seven-year sentence he received last August after being found guilty of belonging to a terrorist organisation.
"I can confirm ... that he will be released," an official at the Hamburg justice department told Reuters. Shortly afterwards a Reuters photographer saw Motassadeq leave prison in the northern port city, accompanied by his lawyer.
The Constitutional Court said in a statement it had upheld an appeal against Motassadeq's detention, but the issue would be revisited by the court that originally convicted him.
"The case has been returned to the district court for a new decision," the court statement said, referring to the issue of Motassadeq's detention while appeals are still pending.
"KNEW LITTLE"
Christian Weise, who attended Motassadeq's trial as the lawyer for Dominic Puopolo Jr., an American who lost his mother in the Sept. 11 attacks, said he had difficulty understanding how the authorities had reached their decision to release him.
"This is not entirely comprehensible to me," he told Reuters.
Motassadeq, one of only a handful of men to have gone on trial in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in 2001, was convicted last year after the second of two long trials.
While finding him guilty of belonging to a terrorist group, the judges found Motassadeq — a friend of three of the hijackers who were based in Hamburg — knew too little of their plans to convict him on a second charge of abetting mass murder.
They found Motassadeq was only a lower-tier member of the group of radical Arab students led by Mohamed Atta, who rammed the first hijacked plane into New York's World Trade Center.
The evidence had suggested that al Qaeda leaders who assessed the group's members at an Afghan training camp had decided Motassadeq was unsuitable for the attacks on the United States and rejected him for a leading role.
(from
http://athens.indymedia.org/display.php?articleId=8068 and the author also says:
………it “smells” like changing hostages, as it happened almost 2 months ago, with the German spy-archeologist (woman) that was caught by the Iraqis rebels. In Iraq, for the last two weeks, the rebels are negotiating with Germany for the change of two German women that were working for an oil company.
The Americans changed 500 Iraqis political detainees (and 5 females) 3 weeks ago, and another 50 yesterday, possibly with the American journalist, that was arrested from the rebels 1, 5 months ago.)
By Louis Charbonneau
BERLIN, Feb 7 (Reuters) - A friend of the Sept. 11 hijack leaders, convicted on terrorism charges in Germany, was unexpectedly freed from jail on Tuesday pending the outcome of appeals against his sentence.
Mounir El Motassadeq, 31, was released from prison in Hamburg after the Constitutional Court upheld a defence motion that he be freed while the appeals process continues.
But he could yet return to jail if the separate federal court handling the appeals decides to uphold the seven-year sentence he received last August after being found guilty of belonging to a terrorist organisation.
"I can confirm ... that he will be released," an official at the Hamburg justice department told Reuters. Shortly afterwards a Reuters photographer saw Motassadeq leave prison in the northern port city, accompanied by his lawyer.
The Constitutional Court said in a statement it had upheld an appeal against Motassadeq's detention, but the issue would be revisited by the court that originally convicted him.
"The case has been returned to the district court for a new decision," the court statement said, referring to the issue of Motassadeq's detention while appeals are still pending.
"KNEW LITTLE"
Christian Weise, who attended Motassadeq's trial as the lawyer for Dominic Puopolo Jr., an American who lost his mother in the Sept. 11 attacks, said he had difficulty understanding how the authorities had reached their decision to release him.
"This is not entirely comprehensible to me," he told Reuters.
Motassadeq, one of only a handful of men to have gone on trial in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in 2001, was convicted last year after the second of two long trials.
While finding him guilty of belonging to a terrorist group, the judges found Motassadeq — a friend of three of the hijackers who were based in Hamburg — knew too little of their plans to convict him on a second charge of abetting mass murder.
They found Motassadeq was only a lower-tier member of the group of radical Arab students led by Mohamed Atta, who rammed the first hijacked plane into New York's World Trade Center.
The evidence had suggested that al Qaeda leaders who assessed the group's members at an Afghan training camp had decided Motassadeq was unsuitable for the attacks on the United States and rejected him for a leading role.
(from
http://athens.indymedia.org/display.php?articleId=8068 and the author also says: ………it “smells” like changing hostages, as it happened almost 2 months ago, with the German spy-archeologist (woman) that was caught by the Iraqis rebels. In Iraq, for the last two weeks, the rebels are negotiating with Germany for the change of two German women that were working for an oil company.
The Americans changed 500 Iraqis political detainees (and 5 females) 3 weeks ago, and another 50 yesterday, possibly with the American journalist, that was arrested from the rebels 1, 5 months ago.)