Lawyers for Accused Moroccan Eye Acquittal (Motassadeq / Germany)

[struggle4progress]

Tuesday August 16, 2005 12:01 AM


By CLAUS PETER-TIEMANN

Associated Press Writer

HAMBURG, Germany (AP) - Lawyers for a Moroccan charged with aiding the Sept. 11 hijackers argued Monday that convicting their client despite the United States' refusal to allow key al-Qaida suspects to testify in his trial would hand a victory to Osama bin Laden.

Mounir el Motassadeq is charged in Germany with more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization.

Prosecutors maintain he helped pay tuition and bills for members to the so-called Hamburg al-Qaida cell, allowing them to live as students as they plotted the attacks. Last week, authorities demanded he receive the maximum sentence of 15 years.

His lawyer, Ladislav Anisic, criticized the lack of direct testimony from witnesses including Ramzi Binalshibh, a key Sept. 11 suspect in U.S. custody. Anisic said that summaries of interrogations provided by U.S. officials may have been ``filtered'' or obtained under torture and urged the court to give his client the benefit of the doubt. <snip>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5212343,00.html