HAMBURG, Jan 8: Prosecutors urged a German court on Thursday to find a Moroccan man guilty of aiding the September 11 attacks and sentence him to 15 years jail, even though he was released last month in a shock twist to the trial.

Abdelghani Mzoudi, 31, was freed from custody after German investigators informed the court of secret testimony suggesting he did not belong to the Hamburg al Qaeda cell instrumental in the September 11 attacks that killed some 3,000 people in 2001.

But in summing up his case, prosecutor Walter Hemberger told the Hamburg court on Thursday he still believed there was enough evidence to convict Mzoudi of several thousand counts of aiding and abetting murder and membership of a terrorist organisation.

"The federal prosecution is convinced that the accused is guilty," Hemberger said. "The attacks were the most awful act of terror in history. With the aid of the accused, unending suffering was imposed upon countless people."

Despite the new evidence, which an independent legal source says has increased Mzoudi's chances of acquittal, the case has continued and the Moroccan is required to attend court or risk rearrest. A verdict is expected on January 22.

Prosecutors demanded the maximum sentence of 15 years in prison for Mzoudi. Last year, the same Hamburg court sentenced another Moroccan, Mounir El Motassadeq, to 15 years after finding him guilty on similar charges to those Mzoudi faces. Motassadeq was the first person convicted anywhere for September 11, in what was hailed by Germany as a major success.-Reuters