GERMANY: MOROCCAN STUDENT CHARGED WITH SERVING AS TERRORIST ACCOMPLICE IN MURDER OF MORE THAN 3,000 PEOPLE IN SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS
Record ID:
352094
GERMANY: MOROCCAN STUDENT CHARGED WITH SERVING AS TERRORIST ACCOMPLICE IN MURDER OF MORE THAN 3,000 PEOPLE IN SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS
- Title: GERMANY: MOROCCAN STUDENT CHARGED WITH SERVING AS TERRORIST ACCOMPLICE IN MURDER OF MORE THAN 3,000 PEOPLE IN SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS
- Date: 30th September 2002
- Summary: (W4) KARLSRUHE, GERMANY (AUGUST 29, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. SLV EXTERIOR PROSECUTORS OFFICE; SIGN; EXTERIOR (3 SHOTS) 0.16 2. MV PROSECUTOR GENERAL, KAY NEHM SITS DOWN AT PRESS CONFERENCE; SLV PRESS CONFERENCE (2 SHOTS) 0.42 3. SOUNDBITE (German) PROSECUTOR GENERAL KAY NEHM, SAYING: "On the 26th of August I made the first charge regarding compli
- Embargoed: 15th October 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: KARLSRUHE, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Reuters ID: LVAA9OT1LEOE2MR3Q84XJAORMX9S
- Story Text: Germany's public prosecutor has charged a Moroccan
student with serving as a terrorist accomplice in the murder
of more than 3,000 people in New York on September 11.
In one of the most detailed reviews of the German roots of
the September 11 attack since then, Prosecutor General Kay Nehm
told reporters on Thursday (August 29, 2002) how a
group of seven radical Islamists came together in the 1990s in
the northern port city of Hamburg.
Of the seven, only Mounir El Motassadeq, 28, a former
electrical engineering, is in prison and is to face charges.
"The charges are suspicion of membership in a terrorist
group and aiding and abetting murder in more than 3,000
cases," Nehm said. "He is accused of being a member of the
Hamburg cell that supported the four terror attacks on the
United States on September 11, 2001."
Motassadeq was arrested in the northern port city of
Hamburg in late November. The latest move is the first time he
has been formally charged.
The leader of the Hamburg cell was former urban planning
student Mohammed Atta, who piloted the first plane into the
World Trade Center. Two other kamikaze pilots, Marwan Al
Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah, had also studied in Hamburg, a
prosperous port with many residents hailing from the Middle
East.
The other three members of the group were Atta's roommates
who are all are wanted and at large. They are German Said
Bahaji, Yemeni Ramzi Binalshibh, who tried to enter the United
States and is thought to have wanted to take part in the
hijackings, and Moroccan Zakariya Essabar, who was also denied
visas to join Atta, Shehhi and Jarrah in the United States.
Motassadeq lived just around the corner from Atta and his
"house of supporters". He met Atta for some time in 1995 or
1996 and served as a witness to Atta's 1996 will. Nahm said
their terror cell was formed by at least the summer of 1999.
The next step was training in Afghanistan at al Qaeda
camps. Motassadeq was in Afghanistan from May to August 2000,
a few months after Atta and three others, Nehm said.
After Atta and others had travelled to the United States
to start pilot training, Motassadeq remained in Hamburg to
provide logistical support as an "agent" for the group, Nehm
said.
Authorities say Motassadeq managed Shehhi's Hamburg bank
account, which was used to cover costs related to his U.S.
residence permit and flight training. Nehm said Motassadeq
also provided financial assistance to other members already in
the United States in the final stages of their planning.
Motassadeq's wife, who still lives down the street from
the now vacant Atta apartment, declined to comment when
contacted by telephone on Thursday. Nehm said because of the
role of women in Islam, she may not have known about her
husbands's activities.
In October, Motassadeq told Reuters he knew fellow
students Atta and Shehhi but only casually.
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