Germany To Charge Second 9/11 Suspect

A man alleged to have helped the Islamic militant group behind the Sept. 11 attacks that was based in Germany will be charged in the weeks ahead, the German federal prosecutor says.

The Moroccan Abdelghani Mzoudi, 29, will face charges related to "suspicion of supporting the Hamburg cell," prosecutor Kay Nehm told Der Spiegel magazine. "We are now harvesting the fruits of our work."

Mzoudi was arrested in Hamburg last October. He is accused of supporting al Qaeda militants operating in the northern port city.

Only last week, a German court convicted another Moroccan, Mounir el Motassadeq (photo), for supporting the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers and for being an accessory to the murder of 3,066 people. The court said he belonged to a terrorist cell that helped coordinate the attacks.He was sentenced to the maximum of 15 years in prison.

Motassadeq became the first person to be convicted in connection with the attacks on New York and Washington.

Afghan training camp

Prosecutors in Germany are currently investigating around 100 individuals in suspicion of aiding terror groups.

Mzoudi is under suspicion because of his close ties to the fugitive Zakariya Essabar, another Moroccan who is thought to have been destined to become one of the suicide hijackers but was denied a visa to enter the United States before the attack. Mzoudi was also a friend of Mohammed Atta (photo), the leader of the Hamburg terror cell who U.S. authorities say crashed the first plane into the World Trade Center.

Mzoudi is suspected of supporting the Hamburg cell by making bank transfers from his bank account to Essabar and of helping hijacker Marwan al-Shehhi find an apartment. He is also thought to have shared an apartment with Atta, along with Marwan al-Shehi and Ramzi Binalshibh, who is believed to be the key link between the Hamburg cell and al Qaeda.

Mzoudi is also said to have to taken part in an Afghan training camp in 2000, together with Motassadeq, who testified he had seen Mzoudi in Afghanistan.

In a statement issued on the day of Mzoudi's arrest, the German federal prosecutor's office said, "The accused was aware of the group's aims of perpetrating terror attacks, and provided logistic support for them."