Dramatic start to 9/11 retrial

By Ray Furlong BBC correspondent in Hamburg

It was previously ruled Motassadek had not had a fair trial

This was a dramatic day in court which began with a blow for the prosecution and ended with an emotional outburst from a relative of one of the 11 September victims.

The first of two faxes sent by the US justice department said that an FBI agent would be sent with an American lawyer to give evidence to Mounir al-Motassadek's retrial.

But the second said no al-Qaeda suspects being held in US custody would be allowed to do so.

Their absence in the first trial was a key reason for the guilty verdict subsequently being overturned and the prosecution had wanted them in court.

This is a major blow to the prosecution. It had hoped that by cross-examining al-Qaeda suspects held by the US it could dispel doubts that Moroccan student Mounir al-Motassadek had played a role in plotting the 11 September attacks.

Security fears and concerns that confidential information would be compromised were cited by the Americans as reasons for not making these witnesses available.

Lack of trust

The court in Hamburg also heard a statement from the German interior ministry saying that it was working intensively with the Americans to obtain more information.

The Americans said they were prepared to make extracts from interrogations they carried out with Ramzi Binalshibh, an al-Qaeda suspect in US custody and the witness the prosecution had wanted to call.

This is just everywhere and all over the place Dominic Poupoulo Junior Relative of 9/11 victim

This led to an emotional exchange in the courtroom.

The defence counsel said that after the scandal at Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq there was the chance that anyone held by the Americans had been tortured and called for the whole case to be dismissed for lack of evidence.

The Americans simply could not be trusted not to use torture on people they are holding in custody, he said.

Then, Dominic Poupoulo Junior, who lost his mother in the first plane to hit the World Trade Center, accused the defence of desecrating her memory and that of the other 3,000 victims.

He said he was concerned the court would be distracted by other issues, saying of the process: "This is just everywhere and all over the place."

His voice broke with emotion as he made the accusation.

Mr Motassadek on the other hand looked relaxed throughout the hearing.

His chances of being acquitted of involvement in the September 11 attacks have improved.

Black hole

One of the prosecution lawyers told me he still thought they could win this case, and their attitude was to wait and see what happened.

But while he was speaking to me, I couldn't help wondering if privately he was really thinking something else.

Mr Binalshibh was allegedly a member of the Hamburg cell

It has been suggested the prosecution may have to settle for something less than the conviction that Mr Motassadek was part of the 9/11 conspiracy - for the charge that he was a member of a terrorist organisation, which is easier to prove.

Mounir al-Motassadek has admitted attending an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan.

But defence lawyer Graessle Muenscher has said that the prosecution needs to hear from Ramzi Binalshibh exactly what he did and did not know, and if he was not in the picture, who was.

But this will not now happen.

When the presiding judge opened this trial, he said it would fill the black hole missing in the chain of evidence. But that now seems increasingly unlikely.