Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Gli Usa negano gli appalti, Germania scarcera marocchino sospettato per 11 settembre

11 Dec 2003 11:38
Germania scarcera marocchino sospettato per 11 settembre
AMBURGO, Germania (Reuters) - Un tribunale tedesco ha disposto oggi il
rilascio di un cittadino marocchino sotto processo con l'accusa di aver
aiutato alcuni dei responsabili degli attentati dell'11 settembre 2001 negli
Usa, dopo che il giudice ha spiegato che la corte ha nuove prove che
"discolpano in modo chiaro" il sospetto.
Il giudice Klaus Ruelhe ha accolto la richiesta di rilascio di Abdelghani
Mzoudi da parte della difesa, dopo che gli investigatori tedeschi hanno
informato il tribunale di una nuova testimonianza secondo cui l'uomo non
apparteneva alla cellula di Amburgo di al Qaeda che avrebbe contribuito
all'organizzazione degli attentati.
Il giudice ha detto che nel novembre scorso un testimone al momento anonimo
ha fornito la prova che soltanto i piloti suicidi Mohamed Atta, Marwan al
Shehi e Ziad Jarrah, nonché Ramzi bin al Shaibah, un leader di al Qaeda
arrestato dagli Usa, appartenevano al gruppo amburghese.
Mzoudi, 31 anni, era stato formalmente accusato di favoreggiamento,
complicità in omicidio e partecipazione ad associazione terroristica. I suoi
avvocati hanno detto che avrebbe semplicemente fornito aiuto a musulmani e
che non è coinvolto nel piano terroristico.
http://www.reuters.com/locales/newsArticle.jsp?type=topNews&locale=it_IT&sto
ryID=3975779


German Judge Frees 9/11 Suspect, Citing New Evidence
By DESMOND BUTLER
Published: December 11, 2003 New York Times
BERLIN, Dec. 11 - A judge surprised a Hamburg courtroom today by ordering
the release of a Moroccan man accused of aiding the Sept. 11 hijackers,
after the German police said they had seen evidence that a witness had
testified to American interrogators that only four people from the Hamburg
cell knew of the attack.
The man who was freed, Abdelghani Mzoudi, had been on trial on charges of
being an accessory in the deaths of more than 3,000 people in the attacks in
the United States.
But Judge Klaus Ruehle expressed doubt today that the defendant had
knowledge of the attacks. "There is the serious possibility that Mzoudi,
despite his involvement and his visit to Afghanistan, was deliberately
excluded from planning for the attacks and did not consciously provide a
supportive role," the judge said, according to Reuters.
By implication, the judge's decision also raised questions about the
conviction of another man in the case, Mounir el-Motassadeq, who was
sentenced this year to 15 years after being convicted of similar charges.
After Judge Ruehle's action to free Mr. Mzoudi, Mr. Motassadeq's lawyers
immediately filed papers seeking his release and renewed their appeal of his
conviction.
"This is a bombshell," said Hans Leistritz, who represented Mr. Motassadeq
at his trial.
The new evidence concerned testimony of an unidentified witness who was said
to have asserted that only four members of the Qaeda cell that planned and
carried out the attacks had advance knowledge of them. This witness
identified those four as three of the four suicide-hijacking pilots and an
associate of Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who has been described by the American
authorities as a central figure in the logistics of the Sept. 11 plotting.
A prosecutor told the courtroom that by a process of elimination, the
unidentified witness must be Mr. bin al-Shibh, who was arrested in Pakistan
a year after the attacks and remains in American custody.
Judge Ruehle said the new evidence raised sufficient doubt that Mr. Mzoudi
was aware that his actions as described by prosecutors were in support of a
terrorist attack.
German prosecutors indicted Mr. Mzoudi in May on charges of 3,066 counts of
accessory to murder in connection with the 9/11 attacks. He denied the
charges.
Mr. Motassadeq, a former roommate of Mr. Mzoudi's, began serving his 15-year
sentence on similar charges in February after the Hamburg court convicted
him of 3,066 counts of accessory to murder, and of playing a crucial
logistical role for the members of Al Qaeda who ultimately succeeded in
ramming passenger planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and
crashing an airliner in rural Pennsylvania.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/11/international/europe/11CND-TERR.html%3Fex%
3D1071810000%26amp%3Ben%3De66df3566c9e234b%26amp%3Bei%3D5062%26amp%3Bpartner
%3DGOOGLE