MOUNIR EL-MOTASSADEQ

Published March 16, 2007

* Mounir El Motassadeq was born in Morocco on 04/03/1974. He immigrated to Germany in 1993 and moved to Hamburg in 1995. In Hamburg he studied electrical engineering in the local technical institute and, most likely, got acquainted there to Said Bahaji and through him to Hamburg Cell since they enrolled to the same faculty on the same time and from the same Moroccan descent.

Between 1996 and 1998 Mounir El Motassadeq worked as a cleaner at Hamburg airport and had access to secure areas and aircrafts. He also worked at a camping store in the city. In 1999 Mounir El Motassadeq married a Russian woman from St. Petersburg that converted to Islam and they have a boy and a girl.

On 05/2000 Mounir El Motassadeq traveled to Istanbul, Turkey, and from there he made a short visit to Afghanistan and flew back to Germany. Because of his voyage Mounir El Motassadeq arose the suspicion of the German Security Services and was wiretaped for some time without any significant result.

In 06/2000 Mounir El Motassadeq and another member of Hamburg Cell , Abdelghani Mzoudi, moved to Mohamed Atta s’ apartment in Marienstrasse with Ramzi Binalshibh .

Mounir El Motassadeq was arrested shortly after The 9/11 attack and was charged for transferring money, assisting The 9/11 and for being a member in a terror cell.

The evidence against Mounir El Motassadeq included his travel to Afghanistan on 05/2000, big mounts of money that were transferred to his bank account in Dresden, Germany, that he could not explain, and later on the information from Ramzi Binalshibh s’ interrogation in Guantanamo that was unacceptable in court.

Mounir El Motassadeq trial was a judicial saga. He was first convicted on 02/2003. The conviction was rejected on appeal and Mounir El Motassadeq was reconvicted on 08/19/2005. On 02/07/2006 the German Federal Constitutional Court ordered his release because there was no proof that Mounir El Motassadeq was informed about The 9/11 attack prior to the event.

On 11/15/2006 the German Supreme Court rejected Mounir El Motassadeqs’ appeal and he was sentenced on 01/07/2007 to 15 years in jail in Germany.

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