US terror relatives confront suspect

Fanning and Push both lost spouses in the attacks

Five relatives of victims of the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington have been confronting a Moroccan man accused of conspiring with the attackers.

The world has to be protected from the suicidal murderous inclinations of the defendant and his friends - he needs life imprisonment

Maureen Fanning
wife of dead firefighter

The relatives were testifying in the trial of Mounir al-Motassadek, who is charged with membership of a terrorist cell and being an accessory to the murder of more than 3,000 people.

Maureen Fanning - whose husband was a firefighter who died at the World Trade Center in New York - made an emotional appeal calling for a life sentence for the accused, saying that he had chosen to "associate himself with the forces of evil".

Under German law, relatives of victims can be classed as co-plaintiffs, allowing them to attend trials, view documents, call witnesses and cross-examine the accused.

Mr Motassadek, who went on trial in October, has denied any prior knowledge of the attacks and says he rejects violence.

Judge intervenes

Ms Fanning told the court that only the helmet of her 54-year-old husband, Jack, was found in the wreckage after the collapse of the second tower of the World Trade Center.

The accused denies prior knowledge of the attacks

"The world has to be protected from the suicidal murderous inclinations of the defendant and his friends," she said. "He needs life imprisonment."

Her comments forced Judge Albrecht Mentz to intervene. He said that no verdict had yet been reached and therefore her remarks bordered on the inadmissible.

Earlier Stephen Push, whose wife Lisa Raines died on the hijacked plane that crashed into the Pentagon, told of his feelings about her ordeal.

My life in the last year and a half has had no joy in it - the mere sight of a commercial plane makes me feel sick to my stomach

Stephen Push

"I can only imagine what my wife went through during the last three-quarters of an hour of her life," he said.

"I know that on at least some of the planes the terrorists stabbed and slit the throats of some passengers and crew members.

"I often lie awake at night wondering whether she was injured or in pain during the remainder of the flight."

First on trial

He also described the hours he spent confirming she was on the flight and said that it took two weeks to identify her remains.

"My life in the last year and a half has had no joy in it," he said. "The mere sight of a commercial plane makes me feel sick to my stomach."

Mr Motassadek is accused of having managed the bank account of Marwan al-Shehhi, the pilot of the second plane to hit the World Trade Center in New York on 11 September.

Prosecutors say the account served as a financing pot for an al-Qaeda cell in Hamburg, and was used to pay for flying lessons in the US.

Mr Motassadek is the first man to stand trial for the 11 September attacks.

Defence lawyers say there is not enough evidence for a conviction.