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Moussaoui’s
Lawyer Seeks French Government Help
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| Moussaoui’s
lawyer seeks French help |
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia, Jan. 4
(IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Frenchman Zacarias Moussaoui, the first man
to face trial in the United States for the September 11 terror attacks, declined
to enter a plea Wednesday as his lawyer urged the French government on Thursday
to aid in preventing his client face the death penalty.
"[The government] should
clearly state its opposition to the death penalty," lawyer Francois Roux
told reporters, urging human rights groups to take action.
"There is no examining
magistrate in the United States. So, the lawyers have the job of coming up with
proof to get someone discharged," he explained.
"When you see the
pressure from the public and the American media, there's a death penalty at
stake here," he added.
Moussaoui, a 33-year-old
French national of Moroccan descent, appeared in court in Virginia on Wednesday,
wearing a green jumpsuit with the word "prisoner" emblazoned on the
back.
U.S. officials believe he was
to have been the 20th hijacker, had he not been arrested on immigration charges
in Minnesota on August 16.
The other 19 suspected
hijackers - all of them Middle Eastern men on the flights that crashed into the
World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania on September 11 -
have been named as co-conspirators in the attacks.
Moussaoui declined to enter a
plea to the six charges against him, saying only, "In the name of Allah, I
don't have anything to plead. I enter no plea."
"I interpret that as a
plea of not guilty," said Federal Judge Leonie Brinkema, and Moussaoui's
defense team agreed. Declining to plead is legally equivalent to entering a not
guilty plea.
The judge then set an October
14 trial date despite protests from Moussaoui's lawyers who said they needed
more time to build the defense. His trial is to be televised.
Moussaoui was indicted on
December 11, three months to the day after the attacks.
Born on May 30, 1968, in
Saint-Jean-de-Luz in southwestern France, Moussaoui grew up in a Muslim family
headed by a divorced mother who did not regularly practice her religion,
according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
He allegedly formed strong
ties with "extremist" Muslims in London, where he lived during the
1990s.
According to the indictment,
a heavy-set Moussaoui entered the United States on a student visa on February 23
with a shaven head and a goatee.
He signed up for classes at
the Airman Flight School in Norman, Oklahoma, to obtain a pilot certification.
But he turned out to be such a poor student that the instructors refused to let
him fly solo, AFP said.
Moussaoui left for Minnesota
and the Pan Am International Flight School, in Eagan. There, he explained that
he wanted to train on a Boeing 747 flight simulator, but only to learn how to
turn, not how to land or take off. He offered $8,000 in cash for the privilege.
Troubled by Moussaoui's
bizarre behavior, managers of the school called the authorities on August 13. He
was taken into custody on August 16 and then questioned by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI).
His student visa had expired,
and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) detained Moussaoui while he
awaited deportation. The FBI questioned him, but he refused to cooperate.
Moussaoui's mother, Aicha el-Wafi,
who arrived in the United States from France last week to campaign on her son's
behalf, did not attend Wednesday's hearing and left the country later in the
day.
"She decided it was too
difficult for her to see her son for the first time at the hearing" since
1997, said lawyer Roux, who traveled with el-Wafi to the United States last week
to assist U.S. lawyers on the case.
Roux said el-Wafi feared she
would "disturb her son at this important judicial moment."
"I absolutely reject the
death penalty," el-Wafi told reporters at Dulles International Airport
before boarding a plane for France. "And I will fight until my last
breath" attempts to seek the death penalty against Moussaoui.
The charges against him
include conspiracy to commit terrorist acts, destroy aircraft and murder U.S.
employees, and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.
Four of the counts may carry
the death penalty if he is convicted, but prosecutors have until March 29 to
decide whether to seek his execution.
French Justice Minister
Marylise Lebranchu warned in December of possible diplomatic difficulties if
Moussaoui were given the death penalty.
France abolished the death
penalty in 1981 and the government has regularly made clear its opposition to
its continued practice in the United States.
The issue risks becoming a
point of contention if terrorist suspects wanted by the United States are
arrested in European countries.
Under the European Convention on Human Rights,
suspects cannot be extradited to states where they might face the death penalty.
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