Guantanamo Bay Prisoner Who Claims Responsibility For 9/11 On Trial In Paris For 2002 Tunisia Synogogue Bombing

January 5, 2009 8:33 a.m. EST

Paris, France (AHN) - One of the three defendants being tried in France, for allegedly plotting the 2002 bombing of an historic Jewish synogogue in Tunisia that killed 21, is a man who claims responsibility for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the U.S.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is on trial in absentia in the Paris courtroom because he is being held at America's Guantanamo Bay, Cuba prison. His co-defendants, German national Christian Ganczarski and Tunisian Walid Nawar, will be in court.

Mohammed is accused of ordered the bombing the synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba on April 11, 2002. He was reputedly the top military commander for Al-Qaeda responsible for all its foreign military operations. It is in this role that Mohammed has allegedly claimed responsibility for orchestrating the 9/11 attacks on America.

Ganczarski is a German of Polish ancestory who converted to Islam and allegedly played a leading role in the European arm of Al-Qaeda's operations.

Newar was the bomber in the Tunisia attack and allegedly had contact with both Ganczarski and Mohammed shortly before the synogogue bombing.

France claims jurisdiction in the Tunisia bombing because two French citizens were among the 21 killed. The three men face a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted on charges of "complicity in attempted murder in relation to a terrorist enterprise."