Moroccan Mounir El Motassadeq listens in a Hamburg courtroom

HAMBURG, Germany, February 19 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A Moroccan was sentenced to 15 years jail by a German court Wednesday, February 19, for being an accessory to the murder of more than 3,000 people, after the world's first trial over the September 11 attacks.

Mounir El Motassadeq, 28, was also convicted of attempted murder, grievous bodily harm and membership of a terrorist organization, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

Prosecutors and lawyers representing 21 relatives of the victims had called for the maximum sentence of 15 years.

"In the name of the people we have found the accused, Mounir El Motassadeq, guilty," presiding judge Albrecht Mentz said before reading out the sentence.

It was the first ever verdict in any trial linked to the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States which killed more than 3,000 people.

He had belonged to the group "from the beginning" and, although he was not directly involved in carrying out the attacks, his job was to act as "a rear guard" for the others and to cover up their whereabouts.

“He knew the essential details of the attack, and approved of them,” Mentz added. By doing so, he was accepting the deaths of thousands of people.

The judge said the Hamburg group regarded the United States and Israel "as a permanent thorn in the flesh."

"They wanted to strike at the political and economic power in front of the whole world and to show it as powerless."

Flanked by his two attorneys, Motassadeq looked nervously several times at his watch as he waited for the judges, but shared a joke with his translator.

He exhaled deeply, appearing exasperated with the photographers and camera crews filming him, then folded his arms as the judges walked in.

Security was high outside the court as the panel of five judges handed down its ruling. Police had blocked off streets outside the court on the eve of the hearing.

Motassadeq was a friend of three suicide hijackers based in this city who ploughed passenger planes into New York and Washington.

Prosecutors said the married father of two provided key logistical support to what authorities called the Hamburg cell of the al-Qaeda network, which has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Since the trial began October 22, the court had tried to establish whether he was a helpful, naive friend who let himself be exploited by the hijackers or whether he was in on the plot.

None of the nearly 30 witnesses was able to demonstrate beyond doubt that he had advance knowledge of the attacks.

Still, federal prosecutors said they presented a "mosaic" of evidence that, taken together, presented a clear picture of guilt.

They focused on his transfer of some 2,600 euros (2,800 dollars) for one of the hijackers, Marwan al-Shehhi, while the latter was on flight training in the United States.

Mohammed Atta, the alleged leader of the Hamburg cell and ringleader of the 19 hijackers, is believed to have piloted the first plane into the World Trade Center.

The FBI claims al-Shehhi was at the controls of the second plane to hit the twin towers.

Prosecutors also highlighted Motassadeq's surprise admission to the court, after repeatedly denying it during police questioning, that he had attended an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan in mid-2000.

Motassadeq said he was unaware until he arrived at the camp that it was run by bin Laden's network and that it was common at the time for young Muslims to pursue weapons training at such sites.

The defense lawyers argued that the prosecution's case was built solely on guilt by association and anti-Muslim stereotypes.

Motassadeq vehemently pleaded his innocence, telling the judges that, like everyone else, he only learned of the attacks when he saw them on television and that he had been shocked by the catastroph".

"I hope that something like September 11 never happens again," he said on the penultimate day of the trial.