First 9/11 conviction

last updated 8 January 2015

Hamburg

A Moroccan student has been given the maximum penalty—15 years in prison—for helping the 9/11 hijackers, in the first conviction associated with the attacks. Mounir al-Motassadeq, 28, lived with Mohamed Atta and two of the other hijackers in a Hamburg apartment for years and attended services at the local mosque with them. In 2000, he spent three weeks in an Afghan terrorist training camp, where he listened to Osama bin Laden’s lectures. Motassadeq, a father of two, said he had no idea his friends were plotting an attack on Americans. He plans to appeal.