Court overturns 9/11 prisoner's conviction

KARLSRUHE, Germany -- The only person in the world convicted in the Sept. 11 attacks won a retrial Thursday after an appeals court faulted Washington, D.C., for refusing to allow testimony from a key al Qaeda captive.\nThe Federal Criminal Court overturned the conviction of Mounir el Motassadeq, a Moroccan, leaving German prosecutors with little to show for their efforts to pursue suspects who may have belonged to the Hamburg cell that included three of the suicide hijackers.\nA month ago, el Motassadeq's friend Abdelghani Mzoudi was acquitted of identical charges of giving logistical aid to the cell. Relatives of Sept. 11 victims again expressed frustration, and Germany's top security official, Interior Minister Otto Schily, called Thursday's ruling "regrettable."\nEl Motassadeq, 29, remains in the Hamburg, Germany prison where he was serving the maximum 15-year sentence for more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization. Presiding Judge Klaus Tolksdorf said he is still "under a high degree of suspicion."\nThat comment resembled remarks by the presiding judge in Mzoudi's case, who had said the acquittal was "no reason for joy" and came not because the court believed Mzoudi was innocent but because there wasn't enough evidence against him.