Astrid Geisler, Agence France Presse  -- Arab News

HAMBURG, 8 March 2004 — The only man in the world convicted over the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington walked free yesterday after more than two years in jail pending a new trial ordered by a federal court.

A smiling Mounir El-Motasaddeq, a 30-year-old Moroccan student, emerged from custody accompanied by his lawyer and was welcomed by a group of friends who picked him up from prison in this northern German city.

Motasaddeq was sentenced in Hamburg in February 2003 to 15 years in prison on charges of accessory to the murder of more than 3,000 people and of membership in a terrorist organization.

But the same court that convicted him ruled yesterday that there was no longer “urgent suspicion” against him on the charge of accessory to murder, leading it to approve his release in a closed-doors hearing.

It said in a statement, however, that it found that there was still urgent suspicion against Motasaddeq of membership in a terrorist organization but that this was legally insufficient to keep him in custody.

Stephen Push, a representative of the families of Sept. 11 relatives’ group, said he was deeply disappointed by the decision and blamed the German justice system for releasing Motasaddeq on what he called a “technicality”.

“I wanted to see justice done,” Push, whose wife Lisa was killed in the jet that struck the Pentagon in Washington, told AFP in a telephone interview from the United States. “I think he’s getting out on a technicality, not on the strength of the evidence. I hope that the prosecutors will continue to pursue a new trial and win a new conviction.”

The union of German police blasted the decision as “a further significant setback in the fight against terrorism” and blamed the US government for undermining the case by failing to produce a key witness.

“The American authorities have knowledge and witnesses that are urgently needed for this trial,” it said.

A federal Justice Ministry spokeswoman was more circumspect, saying that it was the decision of an “independent court” that “must be respected”.

Motasaddeq, who turned 30 this month, will be required to remain in Hamburg and stay at the home of his wife, a Russian immigrant, and surrender his passport. He must also report to police twice a week.

Motasaddeq’s new trial would likely begin June 16, but with a different panel of judges than that which convicted him last year.

German prosecutors believe Motasaddeq was a key figure in the so-called Hamburg cell of extremists that produced three of the hijackers including alleged ringleader Mohammed Atta, who plowed the first of the passenger jets into New York’s World Trade Center in 2001.

But Motasaddeq has consistently avowed his innocence and appealed the case to a federal tribunal. A month ago, Germany’s supreme criminal court overturned his conviction because the lower court had not been able to hear testimony of a suspect from Al-Qaeda network who is in US custody.