11 September trials collapse
01 May 2004
The collapse of the trials of the alleged members of the Hamburg “Al-Qaeda” cell raises questions over evidence from intelligences services and the USA.
There have been three trials world-wide connected to the attacks of 11 September in New York. One of them concerns the French national Zacarias Moussaoui, who is standing trial in the US District Court of Virginia. The other two concern Abdelghani Mzoudi and Mounir el Motassadeq, both Moroccan nationals, who were friends of Mohammed Atta suspected of piloting one of the 11 September planes. The court case against Mzoudi found that although belonging to Mohammed Atta's circle of friends, there was no hard evidence to prove that he knew of Atta's plans. Judge Klaus Ruehle ordered the release of Mzoudi last February. Based on the same evidence, Motassadeq, who was initially convicted in 2002, is expected to be acquitted at his appeal, due to begin on 10 August. Despite the Mzoudi ruling, the Hamburg authorities have issued deportation orders against Mzoudi and Motassadeq for "endangering the free-democratic basic order and security of the Federal Republic of Germany".
The trials have thrown up many questions with regard to the use of security service evidence in court. They have also raised questions about the validity of evidence resulting from US interrogations of alleged suspects, who have not been seen since their arrests in 2002. The USA has refused to allow them to appear at any of the three trials.
The Mzoudi and Motassadeq trials
Both trials in Germany are based on the prosecution's assumption of the existence of a Hamburg-based al-Qaeda cell, which the prosecution claims existed around Mohammed Atta. Several of Atta's Muslim friends and acquaintances were arrested in 2001 and in 2002. The public prosecutor charged Motassadeq and later Mzoudi with 3,077 accounts of manslaughter and membership of a terrorist organisation. The prosecutions main evidence is from statements given by Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who were arrested, although news reports differ, in September 2002 in Pakistan.
Ben al-Shibh and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, alleged al-Qaeda "chief of operations", became more widely known through an al-Jazeera documentary by Yosri Fouda aired in September 2002. According to this report, bin al-Shibh became a key member of the al-Qaeda Hamburg cell after seeking asylum in the late 1990s and meeting Mohammed Atta through a local mosque in 1997. Atta and al-Shibh became roommates and, over the next two years, allegedly engaged in radical Islamic activities. In the al-Jazeera report, bin al-Shibh said he travelled to Kandahar in Afghanistan in late 1999 to receive training, where he met many of the key players in the 11 September attacks. According to US officials, bin al-Shibh is the only person believed to have attended both of the crucial meetings held to plan them, one in Malaysia and the other in Spain. He allegedly handled logistics and money matters for the attacks and entered Pakistan just before 11 September (BBC News 14.09.02).
Motassadeq's trial started on 22 October 2002 at Hamburg's regional court and ended on 19 February 2003 with a life-sentence of 15 years. The defence appealed the decision at the Supreme Court on the grounds that the trial was unfair. They argued that the prosecution would not allow important witnesses such as bin al-Shibh, or German intelligence officers, nor transcripts of their statements, to be presented in court, (the transcripts had been handed to the German interior ministry by the United States on condition that they not be made public). Motassadeq's lawyer, Josef Gräßle-Münscher, argued that the US had thereby violated several international agreements, such as the 1971 Montreal Agreement and UN Security Council Resolution no. 1373, which oblige both states to mutual assistance. The failure to do so, he argued, violated his client's right to a fair procedure.
Gräßle-Münscher furt