9/11 hijacker friend in court for new sentence

HAMBURG, Germany, Jan 5 (Reuters) A Moroccan friend of the September 11 hijackers who was found guilty last year of being an accessory to mass murder appeared in a German court today in the first of several hearings to decide his sentence.

Mounir El Motassadeq, a member of a group of radical Arab students in the northern city of Hamburg who organised the 2001 attacks in which nearly 3,000 people died, faces up to 15 years in prison.

Motassadeq has been held in jail awaiting sentence from the court in Hamburg and a ruling could be made on any of five dates which run through to February 5.

Germany's top appeals court found Motassadeq guilty last November of abetting the murder of 246 passengers and crew members who died on four planes that crashed on September 11.

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

The court agreed with prosecutors that he aided the attacks by helping the hijackers with organisational tasks.

Motassadeq's lawyers have insisted he knew nothing about the plot to fly hijacked planes into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

REUTERS AKJ BS1447