As a helper of the assassins of 11. September, the Moroccan Mounir El Motassadeq was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Now the member of the Hamburg terror cell came from. A Track Search.
On a windy September day in Hamburg. The traffic roars through the stone dam, a wide street, not far from the main train station, tourists seek shelter from the rain showers. The number 103 is easy to overlook, a nondescript commercial building. Here is the infamous Al-Quds mosque, in which the members of the Hamburg terror, praying cell was, the assassin of 11. September 2001. Later, made the pilgrimage supporters of the bombers to the mosque, wanted to be on the same carpet to kneel as the death of the pilot, Mohammed Atta. He had on the Morning of the 11. September controlled the aircraft of the “American Airlines” in the North tower of the World Trade center in New York. It was the prelude to an unprecedented terror series.
“The end of the spook -“
Even today, shops in the vicinity Niqabs, kaftans and Tickets for pilgrimages to Mecca. Posters call for resistance to a ban on the headscarf for girls. However, in the number 103 is no longer prayed, but cooked: a Vietnam opened a Restaurant, now serves steamed dumplings soups with rice. In 2010, the mosque was finally closed. As a meeting point for radical Islamists, it was to the authorities a thorn in the eye. Hamburg’s Senator for the interior, closed the Chapter with the remark, “the nightmare behind the walls on Steindamm” have now finally come to an end.
The Al-Quds mosque on stone dam 103, a meeting point of the Hamburg terror cell that was closed in 2010
Also, the Moroccan Mounir El Motassadeq had prayed in the Al-Quds mosque. At the end of 2001, he was arrested and as a helper of the assassins of 11. Sentenced in September to 15 years in prison. His punishment, he was sitting in “Santa Fu”, such as the Hamburg name of the prison in a red-brown brick building in the district of Fuhlsbüttel. In detention, he had to behave properly, reports the Insider, was polite and friendly, a quiet kind of guy. In prison Motassadeq has finished his studies of electrical engineering. For that he was come to the mid-90s to Hamburg, at the Technical University in the district of Harburg. A good University, the students from abroad with open arms received.
The Hamburg-Based Terrorist Cell
There Motassadeq became acquainted with the Egyptian Mohammed El Amir, better known as Mohammed Atta, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks. September. Motassadeq was friends with Atta, 1996 signed his last will and Testament. In Hamburg-Harburg also Marwan Al-Shehhi, who flew into the South tower of the World Trade center studied. The group, which was later called “Hamburg cell” that included the death of a pilot, Ziad Jarrah, and Ramzi Binalshibh, who is imprisoned in the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo.
Members of the Hamburg terrorist cell: in the Bottom left of Motassadeq, the mark of death pilot Mohammed Atta. In the top center, Ramzi Binalshibh, who is imprisoned in Guantanamo. A warrant out for Zakariya Essabar, and Said Bahaji (top left and right) are looking for. Abdelghani Mzoudi (bottom right) in Hamburg before the court, but was acquitted.
The young men were radicalized together in Camps of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, they had to weapons training. Motassadeq traveled in may 2000, to Afghanistan. Some of Hamburg’s students had selected the Al-Qaeda leadership including Osama Bin Laden, to commit acts of unprecedented, vicious attacks with passenger airplanes. Motassadeq was not among them.
He worked in the Background, but also weighed according to the German justice difficult: After his arrest in Hamburg in November 2001, he was accused of membership in a terrorist organization and accessory to murder in more than 3000 cases – so many people had come, the attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington killed. A fourth machine had also taken a course on government buildings in Washington. It crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after passengers tried to wrest the hijackers control of the plane again.
At 8:46 PM local time, Mohammed Atta steered a hijacked plane into the North tower of the World Trade center. At 9:03 a.m. a second plane struck, directed by Marwan al-Shehhi, the South tower. Both towers collapsed a little later.
After Conviction, the judge Motassadeq knew that the “big suicide attacks with aircraft” were planned, as stated in the judgment of the higher regional court of Hamburg. Of the precise goals, the only a close circle of people was inaugurated, he had no knowledge. But he had concealed the whereabouts of the later bombers, while completing your pilot training in the United States, your Post-done and Transfers for you made. Thus, he had helped in the preparation of the attacks, even if according to the verdict, “at the bottom of the hierarchy”.
The Year-Long Process
The trial against Motassadeq was a big attraction. It was the first in the world in connection with the September 11 attacks. September, and he was complicated. The evaluation of the evidence fell apart: His lawyers believed him to be innocent, the Federal Prosecutor’s office saw in him a helper of the terrorists. The case follow him today, told one of his former lawyers, is convinced of his innocence. Journalists who followed the trial, described the evidence as scanty. In April 2004, Motassadeq was released temporarily from detention, even if subject to conditions. Photos on which he leaves smiling in the court building, went around the world. The US government reacted indignantly: Motassadeq was “a dangerous guy,” said a spokesman for the foreign Ministry.
During the long process, Motassadeq could be on the loose. He stuck to the conditions imposed by the court.
Motassadeq: “I’m innocent”
Motassadeq himself has never denied, to be, with the assassins close friends have been and to have their Affairs taken care of. Of the attack plans, but he didn’t know. To set up an Interview Deutsche Welle he left unanswered, but with a journalist he has spoken: in 2009 he was the Irish journalist and author Anthony Summers in prison a long Interview, in the Summers of Deutsche Welle’s insight granted. “To make someone innocent for a thing helps no one, neither those who died and their families still the truth,” said Motassadeq in the previously unpublished Interview.
Summers is the author of the book “The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11”, which he has co-written with Robbyn Swan. The book was nominated in 2012 for the Pulitzer prize. In the course of his research, Summers spoke in the prison of Fuhlsbüttel prison for several hours with Motassadeq. The stated that he was shocked when he learned of the attacks. Two or three days later, he had seen the photos of his friends in the TV: “Because the shock was even greater.”
“A member of a terrorist organization”
After a year-long process, the final, final verdict: 15 years to life in prison fell in January 2007, due to membership in a terrorist organization and accessory to murder in 246 cases. So many passengers and Crew members were sitting in the four planes the terrorists on September 11. September 2001 hijacked. The defendant had intentionally provided assistance to the murder of these victims, stated the judge. You also had that Motassadeq had to be deported after serving his sentence in his home country of Morocco. German soil, he was allowed to enter up to the year 2064.
Motassadeq in the courtroom next to his lawyers, the not guilty pleaded
No contacts in the scene
In prison, prayed Motassadeq, who had grown up with five siblings in a religious family in the city of Marrakech, as usual, five times a day and followed strict religious rules. “Without my Faith, someone would have killed as I do,” he said in an interview with the author of the book Summers.
Among the inmates, especially among those of the Muslim faith, he is said to have earned respect and Prestige. Contacts in the extremist Salafist scene, which is in Hamburg especially active, not he sought, however, it is said in security circles. That doesn’t change the fact that leaders of the Salafist calling’s scene in Germany, to help the imprisoned brother Mounir, from which you can draw a very positive picture. He was “a very dear, very nice Kid,” recalls a well-known Bonn Salafist to a meeting with Motassadeq. “His Faith is so strong that he thinks it happens only to the will of God.”
The Salafist prisoner’s helper, Bernhard Falk, observed by the protection of the Constitution, describes Motassadeq as a friendly and affable people, who have kept to the rules of operation. On Facebook he wrote in August: “Al-hamdu li-Illah [glory be to Allah], and for a very long time captivity is approaching the end.” He even did not visited Motassadeq in jail, but his case followed. “The authorities go out with him, that he has not changed his attitude” said Falk, opposite the Deutsche Welle.
Motassadeq was serving his sentence in the prison of Fuhlsbüttel prison in Hamburg.
No early dismissal
This assessment of the authorities led to Motassadeqs was rejected for parole after two-thirds of the period of detention. The judge came to the conclusion that he was not moved away from its “Islamist jihadist.” He got a critical Reflection of certain points in his biography to miss, about his military training in a camp of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
As a Muslim, he was convinced that a man the military had to provide a service, right-Motassadeq made in an Interview with Summers. “This is how the military service, every power in Germany.” At the time of the Interviews, the General conscription, on the Motassadeq reference took was in Germany. The visit to the camp in Afghanistan was not “haram”, not a sin, and also by law, not have been banned. His home country of Morocco, in the then still compulsory military service was, had left Motassadeq, however, directly after graduation, excluding military service.
“More radical than before,”
The view that Motassadeq had not changed his attitude, also agrees with Daniel Zerbin, Professor for Criminal law at the Northern Business School in Hamburg. Zerbin has written his doctoral thesis on the Hamburg terror cell. Although Motassadeq in jail have a very inconspicuous and quiet, but: “He has not changed his views at all.” On the contrary, these have yet to be established, speculates Zerbin, based on information from security circles. “The thing was even radicalized him,” he said in an interview with Deutsche Welle
Arrest in case of re-entry
It is obvious that the German judiciary feels the same way and, therefore, particular caution: Motassadeq at the end comes a few weeks before the start of regular Adhesive in the middle of January 2019, under the condition that he will be deported to Morocco. “This approach gives us the opportunity to arrest him immediately, should he set foot again on German soil,” said the spokeswoman of the Federal Prosecutor’s office, Frauke Köhler, the German wave.
There is no evidence, however, that he intends to: reported to be waiting in Morocco Motassadeqs wife to him, a Russian Convert. The Pair met in Hamburg and has three children. The oldest daughter is 18, the youngest son of 11 years old. A call to Motassadeqs brother in Morocco this a tantrum. The German justice, he is not good to talk: Mounir have the innocent sitting in jail, he suggests, and 15 years of his life lost. “Allah has protected him 15 years in prison and will protect him.” All he will say about the plans of his brother and warns of further Investigation.
Marrakech, the hometown of Mounir El Motassadeq. After Germany, he is no longer allowed to enter until he is 90.
Under Observation
That Motassadeq in Morocco, you can undisturbed dive into his private life, is unlikely. The Moroccan security authorities have a reputation with the big hardness and efficiency against Islamist terrorist groups like “Al Qaeda in the Maghreb” or the “IS”. Observers are convinced that Motassadeq questioned about his entry, maybe even arrested or brought before the court. But at least he’ll be shadowed for a certain period of time, his phone tapped and his mail read.
This information would then be shared with the U.S. services, said the long-standing canadian secret service employee Phil Gurski, who is now managing Director of the company “Borealis Threat and Risk Consulting”. Of course the USA wanted to know if you Motassadeq could be dangerous. The Americans had a good wire to the Moroccan security authorities, “therefore, a lot of information are there, and go”. It is conceivable that the US bring services Motassadeq in the United States, to put him to court? “Under the Trump administration, I don’t rule anything out,” says security expert Gurski.
A Hero for Al Qaeda?
So 17 years after the September 11 attacks. September is still a risk of Mounir El Motassadeq, a marginal figure in the Hamburg cell? Of interest, but no more, it is called in German security circles. 44 he was already too old to be a role model for young Islamists. The resist Ex-secret service agent Phil Gurski speaks. He assumes that the global, and still highly dangerous terrorist network Al-Qaeda, Motassadeq will hybridize to the hero style: He had played an important role in of the biggest attacks in the history and anyone from his terrorist cell, betrayed. “He stands there as someone who beat the System, and the infidels the West is not bent.” Thus, it is suitable very well as a role model for the younger Islamists.
The Hamburg-based forensic scientist Daniel Zerbin sees him as a potentially highly dangerous propaganda figure: Motassadeq will certainly not build any bombs. But after his release, he was a “running” Symbol, and such symbols were “the strongest weapon of terrorism”. While the assassins of the 11. September and their helpers were mostly dead, in hiding or in prison, he had served his sentence. “And that makes him a kind of Martyr.”
Employees: Siham Ouchtou