[JURIST] A Moroccan man convicted of aiding the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackers lost an appeal to Germany's top criminal court Friday. Mounir el Motassadeq [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] was convicted in November of being an accessory to murder for helping to protect the hijackers and maintain their facade of being regular university students; in January he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Motassadeq's lawyer has said he may appeal his case to the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) [official website].

In his first trial in 2003, Motassadeq was convicted on 3,000 charges of aiding and abetting murder and sentenced to 15-years in prison, but the decision was overturned and a new trial was ordered [JURIST report]. In a retrial, the Hamburg Supreme Court convicted [JURIST report] Motassadeq in August 2005 of belonging to a terrorist organization and sentenced him to seven years in prison, but cleared him of his direct involvement in the attacks. AP has more.