KARLSRUHE (Germany), Nov 16: Germany's highest appeals court on Thursday found a Moroccan, Mounir el Motassadeq, guilty of being an accessory to murder in the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

The Federal Court of Justice ordered Motassadeq to face sentencing in a lower court in the northern city of Hamburg. He could be jailed for up to 15 years.

Motassadeq, 32, was found guilty last year of the lesser charge of membership of a terrorist organisation and given a seven-year prison sentence.

He was cleared of abetting mass murder.

But the Karlsruhe-based court overturned that verdict on Thursday ruling that Motassadeq was an accessory in the deaths of the 246 passengers and crew in the four planes that crashed on Sept 11.

They also upheld the guilty verdict for belonging to a terrorist organisation.

Motassadeq got to know three of the Sept 11 suicide pilots, including their leader Mohammed Atta, while they were students together in Hamburg.

He has insisted that although he was friends with the hijackers, he knew nothing of their plans.

Presiding judge Klaus Tolksdorf rejected that claim, telling the court: “By taking on organisational tasks, he facilitated and supported the attacks.” Tolksdorf ruled that the new trial should decide “the appropriate sentence for the act and his guilt” but would not examine any fresh evidence or hear new witnesses.

The decision is the latest step in a marathon legal process.

In his first trial, which started in 2002, Motassadeq was sentenced to 15 years in jail for being an accessory to the murder of over 3,000 people in the suicide plane attacks on New York and Washington and for belonging to a terrorist organisation.

That verdict made the father of two children the first person to be convicted for playing a role in the attacks. But it was overturned by federal judges in March 2004, on the grounds that US authorities had refused to allow the court to question top Al Qaeda suspects being held in US custody.

In his retrial, the court found there was no evidence to show that Motassadeq had been directly involved in the Sept 11 attacks.

But he was found to have handled bank transfers for members of the Hamburg cell while they were pursuing flight training in the United States and to have helped cover up their whereabouts.

He has admitted attending an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, saying that it was the duty of every good Muslim to learn to use weapons.

Authorities have said that once Motassadeq's long journey through the German legal system is over, they will deport him to Morocco.

Since Motassadeq first went on trial, a handful of men have been convicted of involvement in the 2001 attacks.

Frenchman Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person ever tried in the United States for the attacks, was sentenced to life in prison in May.—AFP