THE only man convicted of being involved in the September 11 attacks was freed from prison yesterday amid claims that Washington’s refusal to share its secrets over the al-Qaeda plot had prevented a successful prosecution.

Mounir el-Motassadeq, 30, smiled broadly as he left the Hamburg prison where he had been held since November 2001. Flanked by cheering supporters, he was driven away to be reunited with his Russian-born wife and two children.

The Moroccan-born student had been jailed for 15 years last year for helping three of the hijackers to plan the attacks in the United States. He has been released pending a retrial.

Judges have hinted that they believe that there is little likelihood that prosecutors can prove that he is an accessory to the murder of 3,000 people in the attacks of 2001.

Josef Grässle-Münscher, Mr el-Motassadeq’s lawyer, said that his client was very happy and was looking forward to continuing his electrical engineering studies.

Mr el-Motassadeq was ordered to stay in Hamburg, surrender his passport and report twice a week to police.His defence team is confident that he will be acquitted as they doubt that the American authorities will permit Ramzi Binalshibh, a key al-Qaeda suspect held in custody at Guantanamo Bay, to appear at the new trial in June.

Defence lawyers claim that his evidence would show that Mr el-Motassadeq knew nothing of the September 11 operation. Judges in the Hamburg trial argued that Mr el-Motassadeq was being denied a fair hearing by America’s refusal to allow defence lawyers access to such a key witness.Washington’s reluctance in allowing Mr Binalshibh to testify has never been satisfactorily explained to German authorities, according to government sources.

Steven Push, a representative of families of September 11 victims, said that the decision was very disappointing. “From what I can tell, proper procedures were not followed by the prosecutors,” he said. “I hope that they can do a better job in a subsequent trial and put him back behind bars.”

Otto Schily, the German Interior Minister, raised this case with US officials during his recent visit to Washington. He said that the US Justice Department had refused to let Mr Binalshibh testify in the Hamburg trial or any other court case in the future.

The CIA’s reluctance to allow another key lieutenant of Osama bin Laden to testify at the trial in the US of Zacharias Moussaoui, a South London student, means that that case could also collapse.Mr Moussaoui is the only alleged September 11 conspirator to be charged in America. His lawyers claimed that a Saudi, who is also being held in Cuba, could clear their client of claims that he was “the twentieth hijacker”.

The failure to prosecute anyone successfully as part of the September 11 attacks has been condemned by many of the families who lost relatives in the World Trade Centre. They have criticised the White House for not ensuring that al-Qaeda captives testify and US intelligence agencies tell all that they know to help prosecutors. The collapse of this trial comes as a US commission investigating the terrorist attacks is expected to conclude that the security authorities missed vital clues about the al-Qaeda plot.

Mr el-Motassadeq still faces charges of belonging to a terrorist organisation. He has admitted attending an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan. He has also told of his close friendship with three of the hijackers: Mohammed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad al-Jarrah, who all lived in Hamburg.

The same Hamburg court acquitted Abdelghani Mzoudi, Mr el-Motassadeq’s friend and fellow Moroccan, of identical charges in February. Defence lawyers for Mr Mzoudi used the same strategy of blaming American secrecy for preventing a fair trial.

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