Homeland Security

State Department on Sentencing of Mounir el Motassadeq

(Taken Question: February 19 State Department statement) (150)
Following is the official answer to a question taken at the February
19 regular State Department briefing; the answer was posted later in
the day:
(begin text)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
February 19, 2003
Question Taken at February 19, 2003 Daily Press Briefing
GERMANY: SENTENCING OF MOTASSADEQ
Question: Any comment on the jail sentence given by the German court
to Mounir el Motassadeq for being accessory to the murder of more than
3000 people who were killed in the 9/11 attacks?
Answer: The United States believes terrorists should be brought to
justice for their crimes, particularly crimes as heinous as the 9/11
terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, and rural Pennsylvania.
This was an important trial, the first in connection with those
attacks, and we are pleased that the defendant received the maximum
sentence possible.
(end text)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)