America, Sunday Times
Judge berates US failures as 9/11 supporter is convicted

A German court yesterday convicted a Moroccan student of belonging to the al-Qaeda cell responsible for the attacks on America of September 11, 2001, but acquitted him of direct involvement in the murder of nearly 3,000 people.

Mounir al-Motassadeq, 31, was sentenced to seven years in prison for membership of a terrorist organisation, but the judge ruled that the more serious charges were not proven, in part because of a failure by the US authorities to co-operate with the prosecution.

In a three-hour judgment, read out before a court in Hamburg, Judge Ernst-Rainer Schudt said that the US Justice Department had refused to co-operate fully with the German court.

“How are we supposed to do justice to our task when important documents are withheld from us?” the judge asked.