Chancellery Blocks Use of U.S. Evidence in Terrorism Trial

The German chancellery has blocked a Hamburg court trying a Moroccan man linked to the September 11 attacks from using evidence supplied by U.S. officials. Abdelghani Mzoudi is facing conspiracy charges in Hamburg for allegedly aiding several of the suicide hijackers who carried out the attacks. German intelligence officials tried to give the court a transcript of an interrogation of Ramzi Binalshibh, who is being held in the United States on suspicion of masterminding the attacks. But the chancellery and the federal interior ministry both intervened to stop the handover. Mzoudi's lawyers have argued that Binalshibh's evidence is vital to establishing whether their client was linked to the Hamburg cell of the al Qaeda terrorism network.