Moroccan gets 7-yr sentence in Hamburg 9/11 trial

It was still unclear how the court had ruled on a separate charge of Motassadeq being an accessory to the September 11 attacks on the United States.

The verdict came after a year-long retrial at which prosecutors had tried to prove Motassadeq helped plot the suicide hijack attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in 2001. He had been convicted on both charges at a first trial in 2003, but that ruling was quashed on appeal.

The outcome hinged largely on evidence from captured al-Qaeda prisoners, which the United States withheld from Motassadeq's first trial and made available only in limited form at the retrial.

Washington declined, on security grounds, to let the court question the prisoners, including two senior figures being interrogated at secret locations on suspicion of masterminding the attacks.