Germans charge Moroccan man with ties to Sept. 11 hijackers

BERLIN -- Germany filed charges Wednesday against the only suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks apprehended in the country, raising the prospect of a trial in the city that was once home to several of the key hijackers.\nThe federal prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe said in a statement that Mounir El Motassadeq, a Moroccan citizen, was charged in a Hamburg superior court "because of his participation in the terror attacks in the United States on Sept. 11." But the prosecutor did not announce specific charges or a date for the trial, and a spokeswoman refused to give details.\nEl Motassadeq, 28, was picked up Nov. 28 at his Hamburg apartment on suspicions he had "intensive contacts" with Sept. 11 hijackers Mohamed Atta, Marwan Al-Shehhi, Ziad Jarrah and other members of the Hamburg cell.\nGermany has also issued international arrest warrants for three other men -- Ramsi Binalshibh, Said Bahaji, and Zakariya Essabar -- who are believed to have been the group's logistical experts.\nAuthorities have released little information about El Motassadeq's suspected role, and a trial could help illuminate how the Hamburg cell functioned.\nAt the time he was arrested, authorities said that El Motassadeq had power of attorney over Al-Shehhi's Hamburg bank account, noting large sums of money were regularly deposited into the account from May 2000 to November 2000.\nThe account was used to finance Al-Shehhi, Atta and Jarrah, the prosecutor's office said. The money also financed Al-Shehhi during his stay in the United States and was used to pay for training at a Florida flight school.\nAuthorities believe Atta and Al-Shehhi piloted the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center, while Jarrah piloted the plane that crashed in a Pennsylvania field.\n"The accused maintained intensive contacts over several years" to the suicide hijackers, the prosecutor's office said at the time of El Motassadeq's arrest.