These days, a well-known friend of the September 11 hijackers leads a quiet life. In spite of a seven-year jail sentence, Mounir el Motassadeq has been free for a good six months. Now, during Ramadan, he fasts, goes to a mosque to pray, and then returns home to his wife and two kids.

The man suspected of helping the Sept. 11 terrorists can't do much else at the moment. He's in a legal eddy, and it's not clear whether he'll have to serve out his sentence. This Thursday, the Federal Court of Justice, Germany's highest appellate court, will pick up his case again. Federal prosecutors as well as Motassadeq's defense team are demanding that his grotesquely complicated case should go -- for a third time -- before judges in Hamburg, where Motassadeq was first arrested. The prosecutors want a stiffer verdict, while the defense wants the verdict overturned -- to clear the way for acquittal.

It's been undisputed for a while now that Motassadeq supported the Hamburg-based 9/11 terror cell. It just isn't clear how much he knew about their plans. The first verdict in Hamburg, condemning him to 15 years in jail for abetting the murder of more than 3,000 people and for "membership of a terrorist organization," was overturned by federal judges in March 2004. The reason was controversial: Statements that might have exonerated Motassadeq by Ramzi Binalshibh, a suspected accomplice in US custody, weren't released by US officials, and in their absence the court gave Motassadeq the benefit of the doubt.

Grotesque complications

In the second round before the Hamburg court, American officials did release summaries of the Binalshibh interrogations. His statement that Motassadeq was not a "member" of the terror cell, was assessed as a self-serving declaration by the new judges in Hamburg. They again found Motassadeq guilty of belonging to a "terrorist organization," but no longer of abetting murder. Their reason: It was probable that Motassadeq was ignorant of "the dimensions of the attacks," in spite of his connections to the terrorists.

Federal prosecutor general Monika Harms believes this point is wrong, and her team of prosecutors won't let Motassadeq's relatively mild verdict stand without a fight. They argue Motassadeq knew the plot involved suicide missions with passenger aircraft, so even if he didn't know the finer details, he should be found guilty of abetting murder.

Alternatively, argue the prosecutors, the Hamburg judges at least have to grapple with the charge of abetting "an attack on air transportation" -- a point which was previously laid aside ad acta, because the charge, though it carries a minimum penalty of two years in prison, fell away with the murder accusation.

Motassadeq's lawyers want to overturn the entire verdict with an argument that seems rather cynical. Gerhard Strate, an appeals specialist in Hamburg who led the defense in getting the first verdict overturned, says the term "terrorist organization" implies plans for "a series of unrelated criminal acts" -- a contradiction, he argues, since anyone planning his own death could hardly commit further attacks.