All Eyes on Hamburg as Sept 11th Trial Opens

At times indignant, at times charming, Mounir al Motassadeq, the suspected logistical expert behind Mohammed Atta’s Hamburg terror cell, sparred with prosecutors and judges on the eventful opening day of a trial important for Germany’s terror-fighting reputation.

Speaking in competent, but heavily accented German, the 28-year-old Moroccan admitted, for the first time, to being trained at Taliban military camps in Afghanistan but denied playing any role in planning the Sept. 11 attacks.

Prosecutors believe just the opposite. Reading from a portion of their 90-page indictment, the three federal prosecutors described Motassadeq as a crucial logistical and financial operator in Mohammed Atta’s Hamburg cell of terrorists prior to the Sept. 11 attacks.

They claim that Motassadeq, who was arrested by German police in November 2001, ran a bank account that was used to support the cell financially.

He has also been charged with aiding and abetting in the murder of the 3,045 people who died in the attacks in New York City, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania. The federal prosecutor wants to call scores of witnesses, including one of Germany’s most wanted terror suspects, Ramzi Binalshibh, currently in US custody. The trial is expected to end in January 2003.

Defense lawyers said their client has wrongly been elevated to the status of an “Al Qaeda godfather” when in reality he had no idea of what Atta and his gang were planning.

Germany needs results

The trial, the first of an alleged member of the Hamburg cell, took place amid high-security precautions, in a courtroom packed with the world’s media and international observers. Germany is under pressure to show it is waging an effective war on terrorism on its home soil. Around 60 investigations have already been held without a successful indictment.

“It is incredibly important to show that we can get people like this behind bars,” said Kai Hirschmann, a financial terrorism expert at the Federal College of Security Studies in a DW-WORLD interview. “Do we get them reasonably sentenced? If we let Motassadeq walk free, it would be a huge humiliation.”

To avoid that, prosecutors will have to prove to seven judges, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Motassadeq was a crucial cog in Hamburg’s terror machine.

Three-week training, but not for holy war

After spending the morning sparring with Chief Judge Albrecht Mentz and prosecutors over the importance of his signature on Atta’s will and the meaning of “jihad”, Motassadeq went back on earlier claims that he hadn’t been to Afghanistan to train in Taliban military camps. He told the court that he had been in a camp near Kandahar for three weeks in the summer of 2000, around the same time other members of Atta’s crew attended the training.

But Motassadeq denied he was specially trained, as prosecutors allege others in the Hamburg cell were, for the Sept. 11 attacks. He said he merely learned how to clean and fire a Kalishnikov rifle, a skill he said fitted with his religious beliefs. Learning how to handle weapons is one of the teachings of the Qu’ran, he told the court.

“I have nothing against being trained in the use of weapons,” he told the court. “It’s like the Bundeswehr (German army) or a military institute.”

When asked why he went all the way to Afghanistan to get training, shortly after getting married and with his wife pregnant, he said there wasn’t any other place he could get such training. Under questioning, he said he was aware that Osama bin Laden may have been behind the camps but didn’t ask anyone there about him.

“It wasn’t important to me,” he said.

Thousands attended military camps

He provided the court with details on how he got to the training camp, how much such training cost and what went along with it. He said he received the 6,000 to 7,000 DM (3,000 – 4,000 euros) training costs from his father. Motassadeq told neither him or his wife he was going to Afghanistan.

Defense attorneys said he was one of thousands, not just hundreds, of young Muslim men who went to such camps.

“Afterwards, some went to fight in Afghanistan, Chechnya or Bosnia, others returned to their jobs or studies without taking part in terrorism or having planned to take part in terrorism before they went to the camps,” read a statement by Hartmut Jacobi and Hans Leistritz, Motassadeq’s attorneys.

Atta wanted to fight in Chechnya

Motassadeq and his defense team portrayed the 28-year-old as a harmless helper to Atta and his group. Dressed in a loose-fitting gray shirt and black pants, Motassadeq told the court how Atta helped him find a place to live when he first arrived in Hamburg from Muenster in 1995. He first came to Germany to study in 1993.

He relied only seldom on his court-appointed interpreter in describing the alleged conductor behind the Sept. 11 attacks as a wise and respected member of the Hamburg Muslim student community. He also revealed a new detail: that Atta and his alleged right hand man Marwan Al Shehhi had wanted to go and fight for the Muslim rebellion against the Russian government in Chechnya in the late 1990s.

A small group of Hamburg-area Muslims, friends of Motassadeq’s, sat quietly in two rows of benches in the corner of the large courtroom following the proceedings. Following the conclusion of the trial they made hand signals to Motassadeq who smiled and greeted them.

They told DW-WORLD that they thought prosecutors and judges had unjustly attacked their friend, producing answers that Motassadeq might not have intended.

“When you stand under such pressure, and you’re not speaking your native language, it’s very possible that wrong words come out,” said one. Seconds later, green-uniformed police grabbed the four as they exited the room and brought them into a side chamber where they were questioned for “attempting to take up contact with the accused,” according to a court spokeswoman.