German Court Orders Terror Suspect Freed

[Kellanved]

HAMBURG, Germany (AP)--A German court Thursday ordered a Moroccan accused of supporting the Sept. 11 al-Qaida cell in Hamburg freed from custody based on new evidence that only the three Hamburg-based suicide hijackers and their purported al-Qaida liaison were involved in the plot.

Abelghani Mzoudi's four-month-old trial on charges of 3,066 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization continues despite the decision. Prosecutors allege he helped the suicide hijackers with logistics, and he faces a possible 15 years in prison if convicted.

The order to free Mzoudi was effective immediately, but prosecutors said they would appeal. The trial was resuming Thursday afternoon. Mzoudi did not react when the order to release him after 14 months in custody was announced.

The decision came after the Federal Criminal Office, Germany's equivalent of the FBI, submitted new evidence that it received Nov. 30 suggesting that Mzoudi was not involved in the plot.


...
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/ap/ap_story.html/Intl/AP.V2036.AP-Germany-Sept.-1.html

[ze_dscherman]

1. Reuters link with some more information

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3975940

[NNN0LHI]

2. Can't help but wonder if this has anything to do with Bush's...

...decision to only allow his campaign contributors to bid on Iraqi rebuilding contracts?

Don

[ze_dscherman]

3. I'd rule that out

I don't think a German court would base its decision on the latest idiocies from the kindergarden that is supposed to be the U.S. administration.

[NNN0LHI]

4. It was the German version of the FBI that wanted him released

Not the courts. At least according to this article.

Don

[gandalf]

5. That has some important implications

Mzoudi was freed probably due to the interrogation transcripts of Bin-Al-Shibh (held in custody by the US at undisclosed location).
Motassadeq was sentenced to 15 years this year by the same court for more or less the same allegations. At that time, the German BKA (perhaps comparable to the FBI in some aspects) knew the contents of the interrogation transcripts but said they could not turn them over to the court because the US would not allow that.
That means: German prosecutors knew that the allegations against Motassadeq were possibly baseless, but they withheld this information, knowing the danger that Motassadeq could be sentenced even though he might be innocent.

[NNN0LHI]

6. I dout they will play that game for the US any more n/t