KARLSRUHE (Germany), Aug 29: German authorities said on Thursday they had charged a Moroccan man with complicity in the Sept 11 attacks, only the second person to be indicted worldwide, and had evidence the suicide-hijackings were planned almost two years in advance.

Federal prosecutor Kay Nehm said Mounir El Motassadeq was accused of belonging to a terrorist organization and of at least 3,116 counts of assisting in murder.

Motassadeq is the first person to be charged over the attacks in Europe and the second after Zacarias Moussaoui, who is due to face court in the United States in January following his arrest in August last year on immigration violations.

Speaking at a press conference, Nehm said Motassadeq had managed a bank account for Marwan Al-Shehhi, one of the hijackers, and explained how Shehhi had boasted of attacking the United States to a Hamburg librarian.

“There will be thousands of dead. You will think of me,” Shehhi told the librarian in April or May of 2000, according to Nehm.

New York’s World Trade Center was mentioned in the conversation, he added. Investigators said shortly after the attacks that perhaps years of planning had gone into them.

He described Motassadeq, as a “substantial cog” in the preparation of the attacks.

The 28-year-old Moroccan was officially charged on Wednesday with helping members of the Hamburg cell of the Al Qaeda network, accusations that he has fiercely denied.

But Nehm said the attacks would probably not have succeeded without the help of Motassadeq, who he claimed had been seen at a training camp near Kandahar between May and Aug 2000.

“The Hamburg cell was part of an international network of Muslim fundamentalists who were ready to commit violent acts,” he said.—AFP