Moroccan rejects violence

A Moroccan accused of helping the September 11 hijackers faced a German court yesterday in the first trial of an attack suspect, admitting he had arms training in Afghanistan but saying he opposed violence.

Mounir El Motassadeq, a student, is charged with more than 3,000 counts of aiding and abetting murder and with belonging to the Islamist cell in Hamburg that led the attacks 13 months ago.

The 28-year-old electrical engineering student told the court that as a Muslim he opposed violence but conceded he had known Mohammed Atta, who US officials say flew the first plane into the World Trade Centre and was the ringleader of the plot.

He also revealed for the first time he had attended an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan in 2000 to learn to fire Kalashnikov rifles. But he said that was to fulfil a demand of Islam to be trained in the use of weapons and not for any attack.

Questioned by chief judge Albrecht Mentz in a wood-panelled courtroom separated from the press and public by a glass screen, Motassadeq said he had often discussed politics with Atta but not plans for violence.

"Suicide attacks were never discussed. In my opinion, that is not a solution," he said. "Suicide bombers are not martyrs. Even in war, there are rules."

"I could not have expected that Atta would carry out an attack. I find it hard to believe even now," he added, addressing the court politely in German with occasional help from an interpreter.

Prosecutors said Motassadeq was well aware of the plans and served as a logistical back-up and paymaster in Hamburg. Chief Federal Prosecutor Kay Nehm described Motassadeq as "a cog without which the whole business would not have functioned".

His lawyer Hans Leistritz told a news conference during a break in proceedings that his client denied involvement in the attacks on New York and Washington and had not sent money to the September 11 plotters after they arrived in the United States.

"Our client was not the paymaster of the attackers in Hamburg, let alone of Osama bin Laden," Leistritz said.

The trial is the first anywhere of a suspected September 11 plotter. It is expected to shed light on al Qaeda's network, blamed for the suicide hijackings, as well as Germany's role in unwittingly harbouring key perpetrators of the attacks.

The only other person to have been charged is Zacarias Moussaoui, a French national whose trial is expected to start in the United States in June.

Prosecutors say that after Atta and two other suspected pilots, Marwan Al Shehi and Ziad Jarrah, went to the United States to train as pilots, Motassadeq remained in Hamburg to provide logistical support for the group.

They accuse Motassadeq of managing Al Shehi's Hamburg bank account, which was allegedly used to cover costs related to US residence permit applications and flight training.