2 Tied to Hijackers May Be Deported

Germany has begun steps to deport two Moroccans who it says aided the Sept. 11 hijackers and remain loyal to international terrorist networks, according to the state Interior Ministry in Hamburg.

The men, Abdelghani Mzoudi and Mounir Motassadeq, have been tried in connection with their ties to hijackers who studied in Hamburg and had links to Al Qaeda members. Mzoudi was acquitted in February on 3,000 counts of being an accessory to murder. Motassadeq was found guilty of similar charges but won an appeal for a new trial, which is expected to begin next month.

The Hamburg Interior Ministry said it wanted to deport the men to their native Morocco. A statement released Tuesday by the ministry described Mzoudi and Motassadeq as “particularly dangerous” to state security. “In addition,” it said, “it is the view of the Interior Ministry that facts prove both support international terrorism.”

Hartmut Jacobi, a lawyer representing the men on residency matters, said his clients would fight the deportation effort. German state authorities recently rejected residency applications filed by Mzoudi and Motassadeq because the men were no longer university students.

“This seems odd to me,” said Michael Rosenthal, another lawyer representing Mzoudi. “My client has been acquitted on factual grounds. It was never established that he conspired with the conspirators.”

The ministry’s move follows the passage this month of Germany’s first immigration law, which will take effect in January and make it easier for authorities to deport suspected radicals and terrorists. Deportation proceedings could have begun under existing laws, but in lobbying for the new bill, conservative politicians held up Mzoudi and Motassadeq as examples of what they portrayed as dangerous Islamic fundamentalists.

However, the possibility of deportation for the two men may be months or even years away and will not interfere with ongoing criminal cases. Federal prosecutors have appealed the Mzoudi verdict and are seeking a new hearing. If Motassadeq is acquitted in his second trial, which legal experts believe is likely because his case closely mirrors Mzoudi’s, prosecutors are expected to appeal.

The trials have embarrassed this nation’s legal system and created friction between Germany and the United States over the sharing of intelligence information.

Mzoudi was acquitted after Washington refused to release interrogation transcripts from suspected Al Qaeda operative Ramzi Binalshibh, a Yemeni arrested in 2002 in Pakistan. The German court ruled that Mzoudi could not receive a fair trial without the transcripts. The same scenario is expected to emerge in Motassadeq’s new trial.

Both Mzoudi and Motassadeq trained at terrorist camps in Afghanistan. They were students at the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg, where they befriended Mohamed Atta and two other hijackers, Marwan Al-Shehhi and Ziad Samir Jarrah. Prosecutors say Mzoudi and Motassadeq helped members of what became known as the Hamburg terrorist cell find apartments and arrange at least one money transfer. Mzoudi also signed Atta’s will.

The omitted Binalshibh testimony reportedly suggests that Mzoudi and Motassadeq, who could face 15 years in prison, were not among the Hamburg cell’s four members who planned the attacks.