GERMANY: The only man in the world behind bars for the September 11th attacks walked free on bail from a Hamburg court yesterday ahead of a retrial in June.
Mr Mounir el-Motassadeq, a 30-year-old Moroccan student, was ordered to stand trial again on the charge of membership of the Hamburg terrorist cell behind the attacks.
"Mr Motassadeq now wants to go home to his family and then continue studies at Hamburg Technical University.
"He is very happy," said Mr Josef Grässle-Münscher, Mr Motassadeq's lawyer.
He left the Hamburg courthouse two hours after the verdict was announced with a heavily bearded Mr Motassadeq.
He smiled broadly but declined to answer any questions, got into a waiting car and sped off.
A court spokeswoman said Mr Motassadeq's passport was withheld and he was freed on condition that he stay in Hamburg and report to authorities twice a week.
Mr Motassadeq moved to Germany in 1993 and is married with two children. He denied all knowledge of the September 11th attacks, but admitted training at an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan.
He said he was a close friend of Mohammed Atta, who, US authorities believe, crashed the first plane into the World Trade Centre, even signing Atta's will.
Yesterday's release came after Germany's highest court, the constitutional court in Karlsruhe, ordered a retrial, noting that German and American authorities had withheld vital evidence.