9/11 convict gets retrial

last updated 8 January 2015

Berlin

A German court this week ordered a new trial for the only person convicted so far in connection with the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Last year, Mounir el-Motassadeq was sentenced to 15 years in prison for assisting several of the hijackers from the Hamburg cell. But an appeals court said that U.S. officials withheld crucial evidence in his trial, and it sent the case back to the Hamburg court. Citing security concerns, the U.S. has refused to release the testimony of Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a 9/11 suspect in American custody who was alleged to have said that Motassadeq knew nothing of the terror plot. Judge Klaus Tolksdorf said it was unfair to bar the defense’s key witness. “The fight against terrorism cannot be a wild, unjust war,” he said.