Prosecutors Call for New Mzoudi Trial

German prosecutors called for a new trial for Abdelghani Mzoudi, the Moroccan acquitted last year of complicity in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, on the grounds that the the verdict was fundamentally flawed. Prosecutor Gerhard Altvater told an appeals hearing at the Federal Supreme Court in Karlsruhe on Thursday the judges' ruling that acquitted was full of mistakes, and the case should be tried again. The presiding judge described him at the time as a "fringe figure" and said he was being freed because there was insufficient proof against him, not because the court was convinced of his innocence. Mzoudi was a friend of lead hijacker Mohamed Atta and other members of the Hamburg cell that led the attacks. He was acquitted in February 2004 of complicity in the attacks and of belonging to a terrorist group. The higher court is expected to rule on the possible retrial on May 31.