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Gold9472
06-11-2005, 12:14 PM
Germany expels 9/11 suspect despite acquittal

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=11454

ISN SECURITY WATCH (10/06/05) - Germany’s high court on Thursday upheld the acquittal of Abdelghani Mzoudi, accused of assisting the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the US, but German officials said Mzoudi would be deported anyway.

Prosecutors had appealed the February 2004 acquittal of the Moroccan student, who was acquainted with three of the 9/11 suicide pilots while they were studying at a university in Hamburg, Germany. The federal supreme court found no methodological flaws in the lower court’s verdict, and did not review any evidence.

Despite the court’s decision to uphold the not-guilty verdict, the Hamburg Interior Ministry has said Mzoudi would be expelled from Germany on the grounds of his “support for a terrorist group”, German media reported.

Mzoudi has two weeks to leave Germany voluntarily or be deported to Morocco, the authorities said.

Hamburg Interior Minister Udo Nagel said that although no criminal offence had been proven in court, Mzoudi was still regarded as a “supporter of a terrorist organization”, a view that formed the basis of a July 2004 deportation order against Mzoudi. He said Mzoudi represented a danger to the German people and to German security.

On 1 January, Germany introduced a law making it easier to deport suspected foreign militants. According to analysts, the German authorities have begun to rely increasingly on immigration law rather than criminal law to rid themselves of suspected radical foreigners.

Mzoudi’s lawyer, Hartmut Jacobi, told reporters his client would not appeal the decision to expel him and that he would voluntarily return home to Morocco.

Mzoudi was first brought to trial in 2003 on charges of aiding and abetting in the murder of more than 3,000 people. He made no secret of his militant Islamist views. He was allegedly trained in an Afghan al-Qaida camp and had helped the hijackers with some administrative tasks, such as paying student and utility bills for an absent hijacker.

Testimony at Mzoudi's trial showed that he was a friend of lead hijacker Mohamed Atta and other members of the Hamburg al-Qaida cell. Mzoudi has always denied any knowledge of the plot.

The court said there was no evidence that the electronics student knew about the plot to attack New York and Washington.

In February last year, he was acquitted of complicity in the attacks and of belonging to a terrorist group.

Another Moroccan residing in Germany, Mounir El Motassadeq, is currently in the middle of a retrial on similar charges in Hamburg. Like Mzoudi, he denies any involvement in or advance knowledge of the attacks.