9/11 was not planned from Germany- Mzoudi unguilty?

Yet another surprising change of the official story:
Peter Fromm of German Intelligence BvF: 9/11 was not planned in Germany

Update: Judge upholds case against 9/11 suspect (10/29)

Update: Germany 9-11 Trial Takes Dramatic Turn: If Mzoudi turns out to be innocent, the first German 9/11 Case (el Motassadeq) could be reconsidered (10/28 Guardian)

Update: Germany's U-Turn regaring the official story-
Medienanalyse-international.de on the SPIEGEL-"reports"

Expatica -24 October 2003

Defence lawyers asked a court in Germany to dismiss all charges against their client Friday after a top intelligence official testified that Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda did not recruit the 11 September suicide terrorists until December 1999.

The testimony by Heinz Fromm, head of Germany's federal intelligence agency, the Verfassungsschutz Amt, contradicted the prosecution's contention that Moroccan defendant Abdelghani Mzoudi had been an accomplice to the September 11 plot in early 1999.

DER SPIEGEL -24 October 2003

Laut Verfassungsschutz-Präsident Fromm sind die Anschläge auf das World Trade Center und das Pentagon nicht in Deutschland geplant worden. Die Hamburger Studenten Atta, al-Shehhi und Jarrah hätten frühestens Ende 1999 bei einem Aufenthalt in einem Terrorcamp Bin Ladens von ihren Aufgaben erfahren.

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"What the witness has just told the court stands in diametrical opposition to what the prosecution claims," said defence lawyer Michael Rosenthal.

Presiding Judge Michael Ruehle, in rejecting the call for dismissal of the case, said the testimony only meant that the Hamburg men travelled "in good faith" to Afghanistan in late 1999, where they were told specifically what their mission would be.

Earlier, a prosecution witness testified before a court in Germany Thursday that Mzoudi was indeed a "full-fledged member" of the Hamburg terrorist cell which carried out the September 11 attacks.

The witness said Mzoudi was a "good friend" of alleged ringleader Mohammed Atta.

The 29-year-old witness said, "Mzoudi would take part in the regular meetings of the cell, eating with the cell members and praying and drinking tea. And he would read from the Koran."

Another witness testified he had visited a military training camp in Afghanistan shortly after the September 11 attacks where he saw purported 11 September plotters Ramzi Binalshibh and Said Bahaji.

Check out older GFP-articles about Mzoudi

More also at Medienanalyse-International.de -27.10.2003

Germany 9-11 Trial Takes Dramatic Turn

Guardian -Tuesday October 28, 2003 10:16 PM

By DAVID RISING

BERLIN (AP) - In a dramatic turn in a Sept. 11 trial, the defense - and now a growing segment of the German media - is charging that the government's case against a terror suspect in Hamburg is on the verge of collapse. But legal experts say the prosecution could still win a conviction.

The defense is citing the testimony of a German intelligence official who said the Hamburg cell of Sept. 11 suicide pilots became involved in Osama bin Laden's plot to attack the World Trade Center only after four cell members attended Afghan training camps in late 1999.

The indictment alleges they had decided to attack the United States with hijacked airliners months earlier, before visiting Afghanistan.

Lawyers for Abdelghani Mzoudi, a Moroccan accused of supporting the Hamburg cell, immediately moved for their client's release from custody following the testimony Friday by German intelligence agency chief Heinz Fromm, arguing his timeline was inconsistent with the government's. The court is expected to respond this week.

``Federal prosecutors have built their case around the fact that the attack was planned in 1999 in Hamburg, and when that is not right, do the other charges against Mzoudi hold?'' said defense lawyer Guel Pinar.

Fromm, testifying that the plot originated with bin Laden's terror network in Afghanistan, told the court that members of the Hamburg cell did not know the chosen targets or the plan to use airplanes until suicide pilots Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah and suspected al-Qaida contact Ramzi Binalshibh attended Afghan training camps in late 1999.

However, the indictment - which charges Mzoudi with 3,066 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization - says the group devised the plan in Hamburg in early 1999. Another Moroccan, Mounir el Motassadeq, was found guilty of the same charges, using identical arguments and timeframe, in February.

Legal experts say the purported discrepancies do not necessarily undermine the prosecution, although the German media has been quick to question the strength of the government's case.

``Of course, this by no means proves that he and el Motassadeq are innocent,'' Der Spiegel wrote in its latest issue. But ``Fromm's testimony makes it more difficult to prove that the opposite is the case.''

Judge upholds case against 9/11 suspect

Expatica German News -29 October 2003

HAMBURG - Ending days of speculation, a judge Wednesday rejected a defence request for dismissal of charges against a man accused of abetting the terrorists behind the 11 September suicide attack in the US two years ago.

Trial Judge Klaus Ruehle said there were no grounds for the defence's claim that defendant Abdel-Ghani Mzoudi should be released because of mounting evidence that the 11 September attacks were planned from Afghanistan, not Hamburg.

The Mzoudi trial took a shock turn Friday when Germany's top domestic intelligence official, Heinz Fromm, testified that the Hamburg group were drawn into the conspiracy on a visit to Afghanistan.

That contradicted the prosecution's basic claim that the attack was conceived in 1999 by eight young men in Hamburg and that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was drawn in at a later date as financier.

After Fromm's evidence, Judge Ruehle said Friday that if there was no Hamburg plot, Motassadeq should have been acquitted. That remark spawned speculation that he would agree to dismiss the case when the proceedings resumed on Wednesday.

"In any normal criminal trial, this turn of evidence would mean the accused must be acquitted," said Gul Pinar in an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa. Mzoudi is accused of being a member of the Hamburg cell and of 3,066 counts of assisting murder.

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