BERLIN (Reuters) - German prosecutors said on Wednesday they had detained a Moroccan man they suspect helped finance the September 11 airliner attacks in the United States.
The 27-year-old Moroccan, identified only as Mounir El M., was being held in the northern port city of Hamburg on suspicion of supporting a terrorist organization, federal prosecutor Kay Nehm said.
The man was detained Wednesday morning and would be taken to Karlsruhe to face an investigative judge Thursday, a prosecution spokeswoman said.
Prosecutors allege the man had had frequent contact with a group believed to have carried out the suicide hijack attacks in New York and Washington, which killed about 3,900 people.
His contacts included suspected ringleader Mohammed Atta and two other suspected hijackers, Marwan Al Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah, the prosecutor said.
German authorities allege Mounir El M. may have managed Al Shehhi's Hamburg bank account, used to cover costs related to his U.S. residence permit and flying course.
Hamburg has been a focus of investigations into the attacks because some of the suspected hijackers, including Atta, lived in Hamburg for much of the 1990s. Germany's federal crime agency said recently Islamic militants may have lived undercover in Germany for 10 to 15 years.
The agency has posted thousands of wanted posters across the country for Said Bahaji, 26, and Ramzi Mohammed Abdullah Binalshibh, 29, who both lived in Hamburg and are believed to have had close ties to Atta, the hijacker suspected of having flown the first of the two planes into the World Trade Center.
German authorities believe Bahaji fled to Pakistan after the attacks.