HAMBURG, Germany - The judge in the trial of a Moroccan national accused of involvement in the September 11, 2001, attacks has addressed an urgent appeal to the German and US authorities for documents.
Judge Ernst-Rainer Schudt said on Tuesday he had written to German Interior Minister Otto Schily to ask when he can expect to receive documents from the US secret services that have been promised by Washington.
The prosecution hopes they will shed more light on the alleged role of Mounir El Motassadeq in preparing the suicide attacks.
In a separate letter, to the US Department of Justice, the Hamburg court has asked for details of the interrogations of two suspected planners of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon which killed around 3,000 people.
Motassedeq was jailed for 15 years in February 2003 for his role in the attacks, but in March 2004 a new trial was ordered because US authorities refused to allow the two alleged planners, Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, to testify.
Dietrich Snell, a member of the official US commission on the attacks, told the trial last month that the two men were being held by the United States at a secret location, but said the 9/11 Commission had had no direct access to either of them.
04/05/2005 15:59 GMT