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SLUG: 2-313799 Germany Terror (L-O)
DATE: NOTE NUMBER: |
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DATE=03/04/04 TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT TITLE= GERMANY / TERROR TRIAL (SHORT ONLY) NUMBER=2-313799 BYLINE=RUTH ELKINS DATELINE=BERLIN CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: The only man to be convicted in connection with the September 11th attacks on the United States won the right to a re-trial Thursday. Ruth Elkins reports from Berlin on the surprise decision by a German court. TEXT: Germany's Supreme Court threw out the conviction against Mounir el Motassedeq. The presiding judge said the rights of defendants must be protected, even as prosecutors try to help fight the war on terrorism, and even though he called Motassedeq deeply suspicious. Lawyers acting for Motassedeq had argued that new evidence that helped to acquit another Moroccan on similar charges last month, also made Motassedeq's conviction unreliable. The 29-year-old was convicted a year ago of being an accessory to the murders of more than 3000 people and of being a member of a terrorist organization. Last month, a Hamburg court acquitted the second man to be tried for his part in the September 11th attacks, Abdelghani Mzoudi. The court said there was not enough evidence to convict him. Some of the information in that trial is believed to have come from secret U-S interrogations of terrorist suspects held in connection with the attacks. (SIGNED) NEB/RE/AWP/RAE |
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