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CBS/AP) A German court on Monday handed the maximum sentence of 15 years in prison to a Moroccan convicted of being an accessory to murder for aiding the Sept. 11 attackers. A federal appeals court had convicted Mounir el Motassadeq, a friend of three of the suicide pilots, of the charge in November and sent the case to a state court in Hamburg for sentencing. Just before Monday's verdict, the 32-year-old defendant exchanged charged words with an American co-plaintiff whose mother died on board one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center. Dominic Puopolo Jr. earlier joined prosecutors in calling for the maximum penalty, urging the judges to consider the "human and emotional cost" of the 2001 attacks. El Motassadeq, a slight bearded man, turned to Puopolo to say, "I understand your suffering. ... The same thing is being done to me, my kids, my parents, my family — my future is ruined." Puopolo, granted permission to respond, said he forgave el Motassadeq, and reminded him that he will one day be freed. "You have a chance to rebuild your life and be back with your family. Others don't," Puopolo said. "Your life is not over, but my mom's is." In 2003, el Motassadeq became the first person anywhere to be convicted in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks. He was found guilty of membership in a terrorist organization that included suicide pilots Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah, and of being an accessory to murder. Another federal court overturned his conviction the following year and ordered a retrial. He was again found guilty. El Motassadeq was accused of helping pay tuition and other bills for cell members to allow them to live as students while they plotted the attacks. Prosecutors had demanded his conviction on all the charges and the maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. The Moroccan acknowledges he was close to the hijackers but insists he knew nothing of their plans. Defense lawyers criticized the lack of direct testimony from witnesses such as Ramzi Binalshibh, a key Sept. 11 suspect held by the U.S. Judges also faulted U.S. authorities' failure to deliver more evidence. The earlier Hamburg state court acquitted him of direct involvement in the attacks, finding him not guilty of more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder. El Motassadeq spent about 2½ years in prison between his arrest and his release in April 2004. Hamburg authorities have said that, once all legal proceedings against him are complete, they will move to expel him from Germany.

El Motassadeq was found not guilty of the actual terrorist attack of 9/11, but it is difficult to feel any remorse for him because of his affiliation with the terrorists.
According to Wikipedia, "There were 2,973 fatalities: 246 on the four planes (no one on board any of the hijacked aircraft survived), 2,602 in New York City in the towers and on the ground, and 125 at the Pentagon. Among the fatalities were 343 New York City Fire Department firefighters, 23 New York City Police Department officers, and 37 Port Authority Police Department officers. An additional 24 people remain listed as missing."