Friend of 9/11 hijackers agrees to remain in jail

BERLIN, Nov 20 (Reuters) A Moroccan found guilty in a German court of abetting mass murder in the September 11 attacks has dropped an appeal against his arrest and will remain in jail while awaiting a new sentence, his lawyer said yesterday.

Mounir el Motassadeq, 32, no longer plans to appeal against his re-arrest on Friday which came after a legal tug-of-war over his right to remain free until sentencing. However, his lawyer said this was not an indication of his guilt.

''My client is fed up of this constant to-ing and fro-ing,'' Motassadeq's lawyer Ladislav Anisic told Reuters.

The Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, Germany's top appeals court, found Motassadeq guilty on Thursday of abetting the murder of 246 people, a crime which can carry a maximum jail sentence of 15 years.

The ruling overturned a 7-year sentence handed to Motassadeq in 2005 for being a member of a terrorist organisation.

After being found guilty on the new charges, Motassadeq was granted bail, pending sentencing, by a judge in Hamburg, who rejected an appeal by federal prosecutors against his release.

However, he was re-arrested on Friday after the Federal Court of Justice upheld the prosecutors' appeal.

Last year a court convicted Motassadeq, a member of a group of radical Arab students in Hamburg which organised the 2001 attacks in which nearly 3,000 people died, of belonging to a terrorist organisation and gave him the 7-year sentence.

But it cleared him then of abetting mass murder, saying he was a low-tier member of the group led by Mohamed Atta, who flew the first plane into New York's World Trade Center.

Reuters AKJ VV0938