by Deborah Cole
HAMBURG, Germany, Aug 10 (AFP) - US authorities have refused to let terror suspects it is holding in custody testify at the retrial in Germany of an alleged accomplice in the September 11, 2001 attacks, the presiding judge said Tuesday.
Ernst-Rainer Schudt said that in documents given to the court, US officials said they would not allow evidence from so-called enemy combatants for reasons of national security.
He added that they had also refused to confirm which enemy combatants were in their custody, but that "nevertheless certain progress has been made".
The refusal puts serious doubt on whether two key witnesses will be able to testify in the retrial of Mounir El Motassadeq, a Moroccan student.
Motassadeq is charged with complicity in the murder of some 3,000 people in the suicide hijackings and membership in a terrorist organisation.
The 30-year-old was jailed for 15 years in February 2003 for his alleged role in the attacks, but in March this year a retrial was ordered because a potentially crucial informant was kept from testifying.
The court in Hamburg, northern Germany, has requested that a Yemeni national thought to be in US custody, Ramzi Binalshibh, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a senior member of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, give evidence.
It was not immediately clear whether the enemy combatants referred to in the documents were Binalshibh and Sheikh Mohammed.
The two are perhaps the only people alive who could say what role, if any, Motassadeq played in the attacks.
The retrial of Motassadeq, the only person in the world convicted over the attacks, comes amid defense allegations that the US authorities may have tortured the two potential witnesses.
As it got underway, Schudt insisted that the court would be independent of any outside pressures regarding the high-profile case.
"You can see that Hamburg is again under the shadow of September 11th but we will conduct the trial according to German criminal law," he said.
"We will neither follow the wishes of the government nor the expectations of the public. Our aim is a fair result," said Schudt, who is heading a five-member panel of judges.
The government in Berlin has been actively campaigning for a legal crackdown on suspected extremists and recently passed a series of measures through parliament allowing it to expel them more quickly.
Motassadeq arrived at the court about 20 minutes late. His lawyer said outside the courtroom that he had been caught in traffic and apologized to the court for the delay.
Looking relaxed yet involved in proceedings, Motassadeq was wearing a much longer beard than on the day he was convicted last year and was clad in a large dark grey dress shirt that hung to his thighs.
He took notes as the judge read the charges and spent some time reading documents he had been given. He was not expected to address the court.
The court room was packed on the first day of the trial, which is scheduled to last until early 2005, and visitors went through airport-style security checks to enter the building in this northern port city.
On Monday, Motassadeq's lawyer, Josef Graessle-Muenscher said he would demand that the judges throw out the case because evidence which could be provided Binalshibh and Sheikh Mohammed was likely provided under duress.
He said US interrogation methods at Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison and the Guantanamo Bay lockup in Cuba pointed to likely mistreatment of the men.
"If the torture allegations are true, the trial can no longer continue," Graessle-Muenscher added then.