Germany charges terror suspect

Al-Motassadek - the first terror suspect to be convicted over 9/11 attacks

Germany has charged a second suspect of involvement in the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington.

Abdelghani Mzoudi has been charged with being an accessory to murder, and a member of a terrorist organisation.

The 30-year-old Moroccan, who was arrested in October, is the second suspected helper of a Hamburg al-Qaeda cell to be charged.

In February, the Moroccan Mounir al-Motassadek, was the first 11 September suspect anywhere in the world to be convicted for his part in the 2001 attacks on the US.

Mr Mzoudi, who was a friend of 11 September suicide pilot Mohamed Atta, denies any involvement in the terror plot.

He said that even though he knew Atta, Motassadek and others in the cell he knew nothing of their plans.

Afghan training camps

Mr Mzoudi, a student, was questioned by German investigators last summer when they raided an Islamic bookstore in Hamburg, believed to be a meeting place for fundamentalists.

But he was not arrested until 10 October, after a witness said Mr Mzoudi had been in Afghan training camps in 2000, together with Motassadek and Zakariya Essabar, another alleged member of the Hamburg cell.

Motassadek later testified that he had seen Mr Mzoudi in Afghanistan.

Mr Mzoudi is accused of providing logistical support for the Hamburg cell and helping its members maintain the guise of normal students to elude authorities, German prosecutors said.

The attacks caused devastation at New York's Twin Towers

They allege Mr Mzoudi helped find a room in a student hostel in Hamburg for group members to use before they left for the United States to prepare for the attacks.

They also accuse him of covering for Atta and Marwan Al-Shehi, who US authorities believe piloted the two planes that crashed into the World Trade Center, by allowing them to claim they were living at his address in Hamburg.

Mr Mzoudi is also said to have shared the flat with Ramzi Binalshibh.

Mr Binalshibh - who is now in US custody - is believed to have been the key contact between the cell and al-Qaeda.

Suicide hijackers

Mr Mzoudi is due to face trial at the state court in Hamburg.

The same court sentenced Motassadek to the maximum 15 years in prison for aiding the suicide hijackers and being an accessory to the murder of 3,066 people.

His lawyers are appealing the sentence.

On 11 September 2001, hijackers believed to be part of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group, flew two planes into New York's World Trade Center towers, one into the Pentagon in Washington, while a fourth crashed in Pennsylvania.