HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters) - Washington has barred German judges access to al Qaeda captives in the retrial of the only September 11 suspect ever convicted, a Hamburg court has heard, throwing the case into doubt.
Mounir El Motassadeq, 30, is charged with plotting the 2001 attacks with Mohamed Atta and others, and membership of a terrorist organisation.
His first conviction was overturned because judges had no access to a key al Qaeda figure in U.S. custody.
...
In February 2003, Motassadeq became the first person anywhere to be tried over the September 11 attacks and he remains the only person convicted. He was sentenced to 15 years in jail.
In March this year a higher court ruled the verdict unsatisfactory as judges had no access to testimony from Ramzi bin-al Shaibah, a key member of the al Qaeda Hamburg cell who was captured in Pakistan in 2002. It ordered a new trial.
The German authorities asked the United States in May to give them access to six key witnesses including bin al-Shaibah, but the U.S. letter said even information on whether a given individual was in custody was classified as secret.
...
The issue has led to tension between Germany and the United States, which clearly wants a conviction in the case but is unwilling to allow testimony from the interrogation of al Qaeda captives to be aired in open court.
Washington reacted angrily when Motassadeq was freed from custody in April, describing him as dangerous.
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president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is
not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the
American people."
- Teddy Roosevelt
"Government has a final responsibility for the well-being of
its citizenship. If private cooperative endeavor fails to provide work
for willing hands and relief for the unfortunate, those suffering
hardship from no fault of their own have a right to call upon the
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- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions, but laws must and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."
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"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain
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"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are [a] few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
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