Here’s why prosecuting terrorism in the legal system is a drastic mistake: Jailed Hamburg 9/11 Plotter Wins Retrial in Appeal.

KARLSRUHE, Germany (Reuters) - The only man convicted over the Sept. 11 attacks won the right to a retrial Thursday in a German appeal ruling that prosecutors said would hamper their pursuit of extremists.

Mounir El Motassadeq, a Moroccan, was jailed for 15 years in February 2003 for conspiring to murder nearly 3,000 people in the 2001 attacks on America and for membership of a terrorist organization, a German al Qaeda cell which included three of the suicide hijackers.

Supreme Court judge Klaus Tolksdorf said the state could not abandon principles of justice, however grave the crime.

“The fight against terrorism cannot be a wild, uncontrolled war,” he said.

The successful appeal was likely to be seen by the United States and German authorities as a major setback. German Interior Minister Otto Schily had described the original conviction as an important success in the war on terror.

“It is quite clear that higher hurdles have been set for the prosecution of terrorism,” state prosecutor Rolf Hannich said.