THE CONSEQUENCE BEARERS:

German Court Orders New Trial for 9/11 Suspect (John Burgess, March 5, 2004, Washington Post)

A German appeals court on Thursday ordered a new trial for the only person to be convicted for a role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, saying the proceeding had been compromised by a U.S. refusal to provide access to a key witness.

Defense attorneys for Mounir Motassadeq, a Moroccan citizen, had repeatedly asked for testimony from Ramzi Binalshibh, who is in secret U.S. custody. U.S. officials have called Binalshibh a central conspirator in the attacks but declined to produce him for the trial, citing national security concerns.

The appeals decision Thursday was a new setback for German prosecutors as they try to convict what they have said are remnants of an al Qaeda cell that was based in the port city of Hamburg. One month ago, a court there acquitted another Moroccan, Abdelghani Mzoudi, on charges of aiding the hijackers. In that case, the chief judge also cited the lack of access to witnesses being held by the United States. [...]

The appeals court concluded that it "will not make any decision whether the United States has the right to withhold the witness or not," an attorney for Motassadeq, Josef Graessle-Muenscher, said after the ruling. "If the United States does not deliver the witness, they have to bear the consequences." [...]

Andreas Schulz, a German lawyer who has represented the families of Sept. 11 victims, said many of his clients were very upset with the ruling. He said he had told them Thursday that the decision stemmed from the two countries' contrasting approaches to terrorism -- the United States is waging war on it, while Germany is sticking with a courtroom approach.

And so we see things will go if John Kerry gets a chance to convert this from a war to a law enforcement matter.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 5, 2004 8:01 AM