German court orders release of 9/11 suspect

[maddezmom]

HAMBURG, Germany - The only Sept. 11 suspect ever convicted was freed by a Hamburg court Wednesday, his lawyers' offices said, after his guilty verdict on charges of aiding the suicide pilots was thrown out last month.

Mounir El Motassadeq, 30, has been serving a maximum 15-year prison term in Hamburg since a court in the city convicted him in February 2003 of giving logistical help to the Hamburg al-Qaida cell that included three of the Sept. 11 pilots.

An appeals court has ordered a retrial starting June 16, saying the Moroccan was denied a fair trial because the U.S. government refused access to a key witness in its custody.

Assistants at the offices of both of his Hamburg lawyers, Gerhard Strate and Josef Graessle-Muenscher, told The Associated Press they had received the court ruling ordering el Motassadeq's release.

~snip~
more: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4683144/

Why would our gov't refuse access to a witness? What the hell are they hiding???

[maddezmom]

1. anther link:

~snip~
Mzoudi's acquittal in February hinged on information, passed to the court by German investigators, that neither he nor Motassadeq had belonged to a core group of plotters in Hamburg who had advance knowledge of the suicide hijack plans.

The information was presumed to have come from U.S. questioning of Ramzi bin al-Shaibah, a key al Qaeda suspect and member of the Hamburg cell, who is in U.S. custody. The trial judge said the court could not assess its reliability but that it had to give Mzoudi the benefit of the doubt.

Motassadeq insists he had no knowledge of the September 11 plot and did no more than help fellow Muslims living abroad.

He did, however, acknowledge that he had trained at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan
more: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4772862

[lightbulb]

2. Just like the Zacarias Moussaoui trial

"...the Moroccan was denied a fair trial because the U.S. government refused access to a key witness in its custody."

The feds suuuure don't want these witnesses to be heard. Why is that?