Hamburg, Germany — The only suspect ever convicted in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States was freed by a Hamburg court Wednesday pending the outcome of his retrial on charges of aiding the suicide pilots.
Mounir el Motassadeq, 30, has been serving a maximum 15-year prison term in Hamburg since a court in the city convicted him in February, 2003, of giving logistical help to the Hamburg al-Qaeda cell that included three of the Sept. 11 pilots.
He was ordered freed on condition that he stay in Hamburg and not be issued a new passport, said Sabine Westphalen, spokeswoman for the Hamburg state court. Mr. el Motassadeq's whereabouts were not immediately known.
In their decision, the judges also said they viewed suspicions against Mr. el Motassadeq as less serious than before.
Moroccan Mounir el Motassadeq, left, charged with helping the Sept. 11 hijackers, and his lawyer, Josef Graessle-Muenscher, smile after Mr. el Motassadeq was freed by a Hamburg court on Wednesday. (Christof Stache/AP)
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While the original arrest warrant cited “urgent suspicion” that he was guilty of more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder, that has been downgraded to “adequate suspicion,” Ms. Westphalen said. He also faces unchanged charges of membership in a terrorist organization, she said.
Mr. el Motassadeq was found guilty of the combined charges in his first trial. An appeals court has ordered a retrial starting June 16, saying he was denied a fair trial because the U.S. government refused access to a key witness in its custody.
Prosecutors allege that Mr. el Motassadeq helped cell members conceal their involvement in the plot to attack the United States while they lived and studied in Hamburg.
He acknowledged during his trial that he trained at an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan and was friends with the three Hamburg-based hijackers, but he denied any knowledge of the Sept. 11 plot.
The federal appeals court that threw out his conviction last month cited the absence of testimony by Ramzi Binalshibh. The Yemeni, captured in Pakistan on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, is believed to have been the Hamburg cell's main contact with al-Qaeda.
New evidence that could help Mr. el Motassadeq at his retrial emerged at a Hamburg court hearing Friday where lawyers sought his release.
The court was presented with an intercepted 2003 telephone call in which suspected cell member Said Bahaji told his wife that he and others close to the hijackers knew nothing of the planned attacks.
Also presented was a 2002 letter from Mr. Bahaji to his mother in which he wrote “Mounir didn't know anything,” the lawyer said.
German authorities say Mr. Bahaji, a suspected cell logistician, left Germany shortly before the Sept. 11 attacks and remains on the run.
Mr. el Motassadeq lived with his wife and two children in an apartment near Hamburg's Technical University, where he studied before his November, 2001, arrest.
His lawyer said he is expected to resume living with his family at a different location that he would not disclose.
