DUESSELDORF, June 24: A Jordanian man who claimed he was a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden went on trial on Tuesday accused of plotting terror attacks in Germany.

Prosecutors say Shadi Mohd Mustafa Abdellah, who is of Palestinian origin, is a member of Al-Tawhid, a group described as supporting the Al Qaeda campaign against the United States and its allies.

Al-Tawhid’s operational leader was Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, an alleged senior Al Qaeda figure, according to the prosecutors.

Abdellah, who has been in custody since last year, promised at the start of his trial in the western city of Duesseldorf to make a full statement.

The 26-year-old testified at the trial of Mounir El Motassadeq, a Moroccan convicted by a German court earlier this year of accessory to murder, over the deadly Sept 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

Abdellah told the Motassadeq trial in evidence that he had spent a total of one and a half years in Afghanistan until May 2001.

After 20 days in a training camp, he worked briefly as a bodyguard for the Al Qaeda leader.

“They gave me the task of watching over bin Laden,” he told the Motassadeq hearing. “I was supposed to stand behind bin Laden because I’m very tall.”

Motassadeq was later jailed for the maximum 15 years.

At the Duesseldorf trial, federal prosecutor Dirk Fernholz accused Abdellah of being part of an Al-Tawhid group that had plotted to attack Jewish and Israeli targets in Germany.

Members initially focused on collecting money and smuggling activists, but gradually, under Zarqawi’s urging, they developed plans for a gun attack on a square in a German city.—AFP