Mounir El-Motassadeq Sentenced Again

(Hamburg, Germany) In an enduring case (see here, here and here) that has seen 9/11 plotter Mounir el Motassadeq in and out of jail, he has been sentenced again. El Motassadeq, you may recall, lived in Hamburg with 9/11 pilots Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah during their planning of the attacks.

Motassadeq was originally sentenced to seven years, then for some unknown reason, was released per instructions of an appeals court. I have no confidence that this latest court decision will take.

From CBSNews.com:

A Moroccan man convicted of aiding three of the four suicide pilots who committed the Sept. 11 attacks was sentenced Monday to the maximum of 15 years in prison for his role in the terror plot.

So this terrorist thug gets a measly 15 years for conspiracy to commit mass murder, minus three years he's already spent behind bars. I'd suggest he probably won't even do the full 12 years left. The Germans will be motivated to let him out early for good behavior or a prisoner exchange or something.

Besides inconsistency, it seems the German court system can be relied upon to be lenient. I wonder if they would act differently had 3,000 Germans been murdered.

By the way, el Motassadeq boo-hooed in court that his future is ruined. He was responding to a statement from Dominic Puopolo Jr. whose mother was a flight attendant murdered on 9/11. At the end, defense attorneys stated that they have appealed the sentence to the Federal Constitutional Court and they may appeal to the European Court of Justice. As such, the legal wrangling seems far from over.