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| Europe |
| Sept 11 defendant goes on trial in Germany this Thursday |
| 2003-08-13 |
| A suspected member of the Hamburg terrorist cell responsible for the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington intends to refuse to testify at his trial which opens this week in Germany, his attorney said. Moroccan-born Abdelghani Mzoudi, 30, goes on trial in Hamburg this coming Thursday, charged with 3,066 counts of being an accessory to murder and aiding a terrorist organization for his alleged role in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the crash of a hijacked jetliner in Pennsylvania. The indictment, a 90-page document, was prepared by Chief Federal Prosecutor Kay Nehm following Mzoudi’s arrest last October 10. In a ground-breaking judgement February 19, a Hamburg court convicted Mounir al-Motassadeq, 28, of being an accomplice to 3,066 murders on September 11, 2001 and also of being a member of a terrorist organization comprising the six original Hamburg plotters. Unlike Motassadeq, however, Mzoudi will refuse to testify at his trial, said chief defence lawyer Gul Pinar. Pinar added that she will ask the court to allow her to read a prepared statement by Mzoudi explaining his reasons for withholding testimony. Perhaps followed by some quotes from "Stupid White Men". Mzoudi was a friend of Mohammed Atta, one of the terrorist pilots, and had witnessed his will. Investigators believe he provided money at a later stage to members of the group. Atta and two other cell members, Marwan Alshehhi and Ziad Jarrah, were killed in the hijack attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. Mzoudi was also allegedly close to Ramzi Binalshibh, who was arrested in Pakistan last year and is now imprisoned in the United States. He was also a friend of Said Bahaji, who is still at large. While Motassadeq was the "logistics man" who funnelled money to the Hamburg terrorists during pilot training in the United States, prosecutors say Mzoudi was crucial in covering up activities of everyone involved, including Motassadeq. Mzoudi allegedly was involved in the 9/11 planning to the extent that he knew which sites had been targeted. In the final phase of preparations for the attacks, he took over the cell’s flat on Marien Street in Hamburg to quell suspicion that might arise from its being empty. In fact, the core of the cell, Atta, Alshehhi, Jarrah and Binalshibh, were not in Hamburg at all during much of 2000. Instead, they were undergoing training at an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan. Mzoudi continued to cover tracks for the cell members after their return from Afghanistan, prosecutors alleged. In addition, he underwent training at an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan from April to June 2000 along with Motassadeq and another man, Zakariya Essabar, whose whereabouts are unknown. "It was at that camp that the suspects worked out final details of the attacks with Osama bin Laden," Nehm said. Mzoudi is also accused of having carried out a number of financial transactions for Essabar. Definitely a trial to watch...guess it won’t be on CourtTV though... |
| Posted by:seafarious |