9/11 hijackers' friend faces new jail sentence

Karlsruhe: A German court ruled yesterday that a Moroccan friend of the September 11 hijackers was guilty of abetting mass murder and must return to court to receive a new, harsher prison sentence of up to 15 years.

Mounir Al Motassadeq, a member of a group of radical students in Hamburg which organised the 2001 attacks in which nearly 3,000 people died, was convicted last year of belonging to a terrorist organisation and given a seven-year jail sentence.

But that court cleared him of abetting mass murder, saying he was a low-tier member of the group led by Mohammad Atta, who flew the first plane into New York's World Trade Center.

The Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, Germany's top appeals court, overturned that verdict yesterday, ruling that Al Motassadeq was an accessory in the deaths of 246 passengers and crew members who died on four planes that crashed on September 11.

Al Motassadeq, 32, must now return to a court in Hamburg, where he has been tried on two previous occasions, to receive a new sentence. He faces up to 15 years in prison.