It looks like one of the September 11 plotters, Mounir El Motassadeq, may go free in Germany, as the US refuses to let German judges compromise our intelligence sources: US blocks al-Qa’eda evidence at Sept 11 plotter’s retrial.

The United States has refused to allow German judges retrying the only man convicted over the September 11 terrorist attacks to question al-Qa’eda suspects it is believed to have in custody.

The decision, announced to the court in Hamburg in a letter from American officials, puts in doubt the trial of Mounir El Motassadeq, who is charged with plotting the attacks and with being a member of a terrorist group.

The letter said the judges could not question al-Qa’eda suspects because the United States had to protect its sources and the methods of its intelligence agents.

It even said it could not confirm or deny whether it was holding suspects the court wants to question about whether Motassadeq, a 30-year-old Moroccan, was involved in the al-Qa’eda plot.

Motassadeq, a student from Hamburg, was jailed for 15 years in February last year when he became the first person anywhere in the world to be convicted over the hijackings.

However, his conviction was quashed by a higher court in March this year when a panel of judges ruled that his trial had not had adequate access to Ramzi Binalshibh, who was allegedly a key member of the Hamburg cell which planned the attacks.