9/11 hijacker friend sentenced to 15 years in jail

HAMBURG, Germany, Jan 8 (Reuters) A German court sentenced a Moroccan friend of the September 11 hijackers to 15 years in prison today for being an accessory to mass murder.

Mounir El Motassadeq, a member of a group of radical Arab students in Hamburg who organised the 2001 attacks, is one of only two men convicted of involvement in the plot which resulted in the death of nearly 3,000 people.

Last November Germany's top appeals court had found the 32-year-old guilty of abetting the murder of 246 passengers and crew who died on four planes that crashed on September 11, 2001.

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