Hamburg, Germany — A Hamburg court on Thursday acquitted a Moroccan man accused of helping the Sept. 11 hijackers after a 5-month trial that was only the second anywhere of a suspect in the attacks.
Abdelghani Mzoudi, 31, had no visible reaction as presiding Judge Klaus Ruehle read the verdict to the court, keeping his arms folded and looking down toward the floor.
Prosecutors had sought the maximum 15 years in prison on more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization. Last February, similar evidence secured the maximum sentence against Mr. Mzoudi's friend Mounir el Motassadeq, the world's first Sept. 11 conviction.
Federal prosecutors alleged Mr. Mzoudi provided logistical support to the Hamburg cell under lead hijacker Mohamed Atta, helping with financial transactions and arranging housing for members to evade authorities' attention. Mr. Mzoudi spent time at a terrorist camp in Afghanistan in 2000.
Moroccan defendant Abdelghani Mzoudi smiles prior to his trial in Germany. Mr. Mzoudi was freed Thursday on evidence suggesting he knew nothing of the Sept. 11 plot. (Fabian Bimmer/AP)
Mr. Mzoudi's lawyers denied the charges, saying that while their client was friends with many of the Sept. 11 principals, he knew nothing in advance of the plot to attack the United States.
The acquittal on all counts came after the court rejected a last-minute motion from a lawyer representing relatives of American victims of the attacks.
The lawyer, Andreas Schulz, said his clients had access to new information from the U.S. Department of Justice but that he was "not authorized to tell the court what it was."
