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American Morning
World's First Verdict Against Accused September 11 Conspirator
Aired February 19, 2003 - 08:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: As we told you just about a half hour ago, a German court has found Mounir el-Motassadeq Mounir guilty. It is the world's first verdict against an accused September 11 conspirator.
Matthew Chance is standing by at the courthouse in Hamburg -- good morning, Matthew.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Paula.
And very tight security outside this Hamburg court as this first verdict is handed down to a conspirator in the 9/11 attacks. Mounir el-Motassadeq, 28 years old, a Moroccan national, given the maximum sentence from the German courts of 15 years for the role he played in the Hamburg-based cell of al Qaeda that planned and executed the 9/11 attacks.
The charges against him were extremely serious. First of all, belonging to a terrorist organization, that Hamburg al Qaeda cell. Secondly, as a result of that, being an accessory to the murder of more than 3,000 people on American soil on that date.
All along the defense, Motassadeq arguing that he did nothing wrong. He said he merely befriended fellow Muslims, among them Mohamed Atta, who piloted the first plane into the World Trade Center on September the 11th, befriended these people while he was at university in Hamburg. He says he had no prior knowledge of the September 11 attacks.
Throughout the case, though, it emerged that Motassadeq had received weapons training in Afghanistan in a camp run by none other than Osama bin Laden. And the prosecution successfully arguing that his close associations with the known hijackers, close enough to secure this verdict -- Paula.
ZAHN: Matthew Chance reporting live from Hamburg this morning.
Thank you very much.
Let's check in with Jeffrey Toobin, our legal analyst, to get his reaction to all this.
I guess one of the more disturbing things to come out of this case was the fact that German authorities were well aware of these cells prior to the September 11 attacks.
What else did we learn that Americans should really care about here?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, one of the things that's been interesting in this case is people are probably familiar with Zacarias Moussaoui, who's on trial in the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria. They're trying to get that trial going and there have been a lot of legal difficulties getting it going. And he's behaved very eccentrically. He tried to plead guilty at one point and then he denied that he was involved with al Qaeda.
Well, testimony in the Motassadeq trial suggested that he was -- far from being this sort of lone lunatic, was intimately involved with al Qaeda, and that testimony may in some way be used against him if the government can ever get him to trial in Virginia.
ZAHN: What are the chances of that happening?
TOOBIN: Well, it looks like at this point that that case may be moved out of the Eastern District of Virginia, out of federal court and into a military tribunal, which would make him the first person tried by the military tribunal.
ZAHN: Jeffrey Toobin, thanks so much.
See you in about 10 minutes when you come back to talk about something entirely different, the Laci Peterson investigation.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Conspirator>
Aired February 19, 2003 - 08:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: As we told you just about a half hour ago, a German court has found Mounir el-Motassadeq Mounir guilty. It is the world's first verdict against an accused September 11 conspirator.
Matthew Chance is standing by at the courthouse in Hamburg -- good morning, Matthew.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Paula.
And very tight security outside this Hamburg court as this first verdict is handed down to a conspirator in the 9/11 attacks. Mounir el-Motassadeq, 28 years old, a Moroccan national, given the maximum sentence from the German courts of 15 years for the role he played in the Hamburg-based cell of al Qaeda that planned and executed the 9/11 attacks.
The charges against him were extremely serious. First of all, belonging to a terrorist organization, that Hamburg al Qaeda cell. Secondly, as a result of that, being an accessory to the murder of more than 3,000 people on American soil on that date.
All along the defense, Motassadeq arguing that he did nothing wrong. He said he merely befriended fellow Muslims, among them Mohamed Atta, who piloted the first plane into the World Trade Center on September the 11th, befriended these people while he was at university in Hamburg. He says he had no prior knowledge of the September 11 attacks.
Throughout the case, though, it emerged that Motassadeq had received weapons training in Afghanistan in a camp run by none other than Osama bin Laden. And the prosecution successfully arguing that his close associations with the known hijackers, close enough to secure this verdict -- Paula.
ZAHN: Matthew Chance reporting live from Hamburg this morning.
Thank you very much.
Let's check in with Jeffrey Toobin, our legal analyst, to get his reaction to all this.
I guess one of the more disturbing things to come out of this case was the fact that German authorities were well aware of these cells prior to the September 11 attacks.
What else did we learn that Americans should really care about here?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, one of the things that's been interesting in this case is people are probably familiar with Zacarias Moussaoui, who's on trial in the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria. They're trying to get that trial going and there have been a lot of legal difficulties getting it going. And he's behaved very eccentrically. He tried to plead guilty at one point and then he denied that he was involved with al Qaeda.
Well, testimony in the Motassadeq trial suggested that he was -- far from being this sort of lone lunatic, was intimately involved with al Qaeda, and that testimony may in some way be used against him if the government can ever get him to trial in Virginia.
ZAHN: What are the chances of that happening?
TOOBIN: Well, it looks like at this point that that case may be moved out of the Eastern District of Virginia, out of federal court and into a military tribunal, which would make him the first person tried by the military tribunal.
ZAHN: Jeffrey Toobin, thanks so much.
See you in about 10 minutes when you come back to talk about something entirely different, the Laci Peterson investigation.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Conspirator>
