Abdelghani Mzoudi could not believe he was released (AFP)

HAMBURG, Germany, December 12 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - In a dramatic legal twist, a German court ordered Thursday, December 11, the immediate release from custody of a Moroccan facing trial over the September 11 attacks and said he was no longer a key suspect.

Presiding judge Klaus Ruehle said there seemed a "strong possibility" that the accused, Abdelghani Mzoudi, was unaware of plotting for the attacks, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Agreeing to a defense request for Mzoudi's release from custody, the judge stated: "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."

Ruehle said Mzoudi, a 31-year-old Moroccan, was "no longer a prime suspect" after hearing of fresh evidence that could exonerate him.

The charges against Mzoudi were not lifted, meaning the trial goes on, but for the first time he was able to walk out of the top-security court in Hamburg, northern Germany, after the case was adjourned until December 18.

He is only the second suspect anywhere in the world to stand trial over the 2001 suicide hijackings.

Mzoudi appeared initially baffled by the development, only breaking into a smile when his lawyer Guel Pinar slapped him on the shoulder, according to AFP.

"It's what we have always said, friendship alone is not suspicious," Pinar said afterwards.

Mzoudi telephoned his mother in Morocco after the ruling. "His mother just wept for half an hour," Pinar added.

The development, which took the prosecution and defense by surprise, could also benefit Mounir El Motassadeq, the only man convicted over the attacks.

He was jailed earlier this year for a maximum 15 years on identical charges to Mzoudi of accessory to the murder of more than 3,000 people and membership of “a terrorist organization”.

Motassadeq's lawyer Gerhard Strate said he would submit a legal application for his client's "immediate" release.

The development came after Germany's federal criminal office (BKA) reported a claim by a source, widely understood to be suspected senior al-Qaeda operative Ramzi Binalshibh, that Mzoudi was not involved in the plot.

The source reportedly claimed that only four people in an al-Qaeda cell in Hamburg, Germany's main port, knew of the plans - three of the suicide hijackers and Binalshibh himself, also known as Ramzi bin al-Shaiba.

Binalshibh is currently in U.S. custody.

“Mzoudi is no longer a prime suspect," Ruehle (AFP)

The BKA warned that the source had provided conflicting information in the past and that al-Qaeda recruits were schooled in how to confuse interrogators and provide misleading information.

The next hearing on December 18 will take evidence from a BKA official, the judge said. A verdict could be reached before Christmas.

"We would like to know how this statement came about and whether it is all the BKA knows," he said.

U.S. justice authorities have refused repeated requests to allow Binalshibh's reported admissions to be used in Mzoudi's trial, although German intelligence services were apparently given details.

In its letter to the court, the BKA said the source identified the four in Hamburg involved in the plot as Mohammed Atta, who was the alleged ringleader, fellow hijackers Marwan al-Shahhi and Ziad Jarrah, and Binalshibh.

The four at no time spoke with anyone else "about actual operations or the formation of a terrorist group."

Federal prosecutor Walter Hemberger said the claim may be a "cover-up" by Binalshibh to exonerate his alleged accomplices.

Prosecutors claim Mzoudi handled money transfers for the plotters, arranged accommodation and helped hide the whereabouts of Atta and Shehhi when they were on flight training in the United States.

Ruehle reminded Mzoudi that despite his release from custody, he was still obliged to attend every hearing.