Germany: Conviction in 9/11 case

On 19 August, the Hamburg Higher Regional Court convicted Mounir El Motassadeq, member of the so-called Hamburg cell, to seven years imprisonment for membership in a terrorist organization, but acquitting him of murder charges relating to the 9/11 attacks in the USA. The Court held that evidence obtained through torture in a third country is inadmissible. The Court nevertheless accepted controversial transcripts of statements of a Guantánamo detainee on the ground that the defense had not proven that such statements were made under torture. The US authorities had refused to disclose information about the circumstances of the interrogation.