Second Top Al-Qaeda Suspect Walks Free in Germany

Darkazanli is among 41 suspects, including bin Laden, indicted by Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon, who has been investigating al Qaeda.

A suspected Al-Qaeda financier was freed from jail in Germany after the country's highest court blocked his extradition to Spain, dealing a new blow to German anti-terror efforts. Mamoun Darkazanli , 46, was released from custody in Hamburg a few hours later .Darkazanli was pictured on a 1999 wedding video alongside Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah, two of the suicide pilots in the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.A Moroccan man, Mounir el Motassadeq, who is accused of involvement in the attacks, is currently nearing the end of his retrial in Hamburg.Motassadeq was sentenced in February 2003 to the maximum 15 years in prison on charges of membership of a terrorist organization and more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder for his alleged role in the so-called "Hamburg cell" run by the lead September 11 hijacker, Mohammed Atta.But a federal tribunal overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial. A verdict is expected August 19.And another Moroccan national, Abdelghani Mzoudi, who was tried on the same charges as Motassadeq, was acquitted last October for lack of evidence.Since the EU arrest warrant was passed in the wake of the September 11 attacks and implemented in August 2004, at least 19 Germans have been extradited to other EU member states for offences including drug dealing, child abuse and even Nazi war crimes.

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Germany Court Decision in Mamoun Darkazanli Case

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