Hamburg, Feb 05: A Moroccan man accused of helping the September 11 suicide hijackers was acquitted by a German court on Thursday, despite a last-minute bid to delay the verdict by lawyers for victims' families. Abdelghani Mzoudi, 31, had been charged in Germany's second major 9/11 trial with aiding and abetting the murder of several thousand people and being a member of a terrorist organization, the Hamburg cell of al Qaeda.

A short man with a thick beard, he showed little reaction as he leaned toward his translator and listened to the verdict.

"You are acquitted. That may be cause for relief for you, but not for rejoicing," Judge Klaus Ruehle told him.
Describing Mzoudi as a "fringe figure," he said he was being freed because there was insufficient proof against him, not because the court was convinced of his innocence.

The trial centered on the membership and activities of the Hamburg cell which provided three of the 19 suicide hijackers for the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.

German Interior Minister Otto Schily told a news conference: "I don't know the reasons given for the ruling, I have to respect the independence of the judicial system."

The US Embassy, which had closely followed the six-month trial, declined to comment.
Bureau Report