Posted on 08/19/2005 12:24:03 AM PDT by An.American.Expatriate
Source is in german language.
Mounir al Motassadeq was one of the planners in Germany for the 9/11 attacks.
He was being (re)tried on 3000+ accounts of accesory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization.
The earlier sentence was tossed out on appeal and sent back for retrial. The germans were insisting upon having Binalshib & Co testify.
He has now been senetenced to SEVEN years, apparently based only on the membership in a terrorist organization.
The accesory charges were deemed unproven because the interrogations of Binalshib & Co MIGHT have been forced (torture).
(Excerpt) Read more at faz.net ...
This is an important decision by the german courts regarding 9/11 - I trust that it is worthy of the Breaking News.
German Ping
This is just breaking and the linked article actually contains more "pre" decision "fluff" than real data.
Other sources only have the ticker headline.
bttt
Just announced during headlines on Fox News channel.
9/11 suspect acquitted on 3,000 accessory to murder charges
19//08/2005 - 08:28:50
A German court in Hamburg today convicted a Moroccan man suspected of helping the September 11 hijackers of membership in a terrorist organisation and sentenced him to seven years in prison.
Presiding Judge Ernst-Rainer Schudt, announcing the conviction of Mounir el Motassadeq after a year-long retrial, did not immediately explain the Hamburg state court’s reasons for the decision.
El Motassadeq was acquitted of more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder in the 2001 attacks on the United States.
The 31-year-old Moroccan, who in 2003 became the first person anywhere to be convicted in the attacks, looked on calmly as Schudt announced the verdict.
Prosecutors had demanded the maximum sentence of 15 years in prison for el Motassadeq, who was accused of helping pay tuition and other bills for cell members to allow them to live as students while they plotted the attacks.
But defence lawyers sought acquittal for the Moroccan, who acknowledges he was close to the hijackers but insists he knew nothing of their plans.
The Euroweenies will either overturn the conviction on appeal or let him loose on parole in a year for good behavior after he denounces Bush.
from the ARD:
"Membership in a terrorist organization, but no guilt in the attacks on 9/11 - the High State court of Hamburg has changed it's original verdict against the Moroccan al Motassadeq and has sentenced him to seven years. The defense had plead for aquittal and has already announced it's intent to appeal again to the Federal Court."
Actually, you might not be far off.....
the "membership in a terrorist organization" charge could very easily be thrown out depending on whether this was truely a crime in germany at the time.
In a different case involving a Syrian-German who was involved in the attacks in Madrid, Germany has refused to extradite him Spain and the prosecution in Germany has apparently said that they can't charge him in Germany because his "crimes" were not crimes in Germany at the time they were committed. According to all accounts, he was a major player in the Al-Quaida network and dealt with finanzing, etc... (IIRC he was the one who helped Osama buy one of his ships!). Since these crimes were committed AFTER 9/11 - it is quite possible that Motassadeq could be aquitted on appeal . . .
Interestingly, the court felt there was enough evidence that Mottasadeq was involved with Al-Quaida, in Hamburg, but that his connections to the various terrorists we of no consequence!
Time will tell whether this conviction stands....
That'll teach him not to murder three thousand people.
Yeah, I'm sure that the terrorists will now shun Germany as a base!!
More and more, I think we should shun Germany as a base.
Another reason why treating the terrorism threat a law enforcement problem does not work. Perhaps the next time the media rails against rendition they'll include this harsh sentence to give it some context. Where's the CIA commando teams when you need them.
Wrist slap!
so let met get this right. The BTK killer gets 10 consecutive life terms and the 9/11 planner gets 7 years, ja? Almost makes me ashamed to be half German.
Germany once again soft on terrorists.
Nahhh, its just discount pricing. Seven years is a bit under 3000 days. The discount rate for contributing to murder is apparently one day per. Gotta think big to get the discount rate.
Seven years?
What friends the Germans are.
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