Accomplice of 'September 11' Attacks to be Charged in Germany

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, August 30, 2002

Accomplice of 'September 11' Attacks to be Charged in Germany

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Moroccan citizen Mounir El Motassadeq who allegedly had close links to the September 11 hijackers will be charged with being an accomplice in the terror attacks in the United States, German Prosecutor General Kay Nehm told a news conference Thursday.

Nehm said Motassadeq was so intimately involved with the terrorists that in 1996 he signed, as a witness, the will of Mohammed Atta, who was the acknowledged ringleader of the cell and who piloted the first jetliner into the North Tower of World Trade Center.

Motassadeq also knew Marwan Al Shehhi, who flew the second plane into the other tower. German authorities believe Motassadeq may have managed Shehhi's Hamburg bank account, which was used to cover costs related to his United States residence permit and flight training.

"From May to November 2000, large amounts of money was paid into the Dresdner Bank account on a periodic basis," Nehm said. "We have compelling evidence that this money was used to finance this terrorist operation."

Motassadeq was arrested in the northern port city of Hamburg last November on suspicion of supporting a terrorist organization.It will be the first time that he has been formally charged, and he will face trial.

Motassadeq even lived in a Hamburg apartment shared by all three September 11 hijackers: Atta, Al Shehhi and Jarrah.

The flat, located at Marien Strasse No. 54, served as the nerve center of the terrorist cell. Motassadeq lived there for a time, sharing a room with Ramzi Binalshibh, who had been groomed to be one of the hijackers.

As a former student majoring in electrical engineering at Harburg Technical University in Hamburg, Motassadeq is the only member of the terrorist cell who is married. His Russian-born wife,Maria, still lives down the street and recently gave birth to a child.

Hamburg has been a focus of investigations into the attacks because three of the hijackers lived there for much of the 1990s.

Nehm said the attacks had been planned more than a year ahead of the actual events, as Atta boasted in April or May of 2000 that he planned to carry them out.

"Watch out, something is going to happen in America," Al Shehhi told a woman questioned by German investigators. "Thousands will die" he said, mentioning WTC in his boastful remarks.

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