The only person convicted over the September 11th attacks was freed by a German court today pending the outcome of his retrial on charges of aiding the suicide pilots.
Mounir El Motassadeq had been serving a maximum 15-year prison term since he was convicted in February 2003 of giving logistical help to the Hamburg al-Qaeda cell that included three of the September 11th suicide pilots.
The 30-year-old Moroccan was freed on condition that he stay in Hamburg and not be issued a new passport, said Ms Sabine Westphalen, spokeswoman for the Hamburg state court.
In their decision, the judges also said they viewed suspicions against el Motassadeq as less serious than before.
While the original arrest warrant cited "urgent suspicion" that he was guilty of more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder, that has been downgraded to "adequate suspicion," Ms Westphalen said.
In his first trial, prosecutors alleged he helped cell members conceal their involvement in the plot to attack the US while they lived and studied in Hamburg.
El Motassadeq acknowledged that he trained at an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan and was friends with the three Hamburg-based suicide hijackers - Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah - but he denied any knowledge of the September 11th plot.
An appeals court threw out his conviction, citing the absence of testimony from Ramzi Binalshibh, a Yemeni who was captured in Pakistan and is believed to have been the Hamburg cell's main contact with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
Binalshibh might be able to testify that El Motassadeq knew nothing of the plot, the Moroccan's lawyers say.
AP