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U.S.
Seeks Death Penalty For Moussaoui, France Rejects
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Moussaoui |
WASHINGTON,
March 28 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) –The United States
Justice Department announced Thursday it would seek the death penalty
for Zacarias Moussaoui, charged with alleged involvement in the
September 11 attacks, while France rejected the U.S. stance and
pleaded to defend him as a French citizen.
In
Paris, both Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine and Justice Minister
Marylise Lebranchu expressed their regret over the U.S. decision to
seek the death penalty.
Verdine
said Thursday that France "regrets" the U.S. decision to
seek the death penalty for Moussaoui, a French national of Moroccan
descent.
France
asked Ashcroft not to seek the death penalty and noted the French
would not have to cooperate with U.S. authorities on the investigation
if the death penalty was invoked, news agencies reported.
"I
regret this (decision to seek) the death penalty," Lebranchu
said, while acknowledging that France's influence on the matter was
"very limited."
She
added that France would continue its judicial cooperation in general
with the United States but would not turn over any documents that
could contribute to the use of the death penalty against Moussaoui.
She said no such document had yet been turned over.
France
abolished the death penalty in 1981. It is conducting its own
investigation of Moussaoui.
Many
groups in France expressed their outrage over the possible application
of the death penalty in Moussaoui's case.
Gilles
Sainati of France's Magistrates' Union said Thursday that "it
will be more difficult to share information in the international war
on terrorism with a country seeking the death penalty against a terror
suspect."
The
president of the French Human Rights League, Michel Tubiana, said he
"cannot see how the French government can agree to cooperate with
the U.S. government in this affair."
Meanwhile,
Moussaoui’s mother said U.S. officials are "looking for
someone's head" in the Sept. 11 attacks, and that she's not
surprised the U.S. government is seeking the death penalty against her
son.
"I
was sure," said Mrs. Moussaoui. "They're looking for
someone's head," she told reporters. "My son is a scapegoat.
They can't find the people who are truly responsible for this
crime."
Moussaoui's
brother, Abd Samad Moussaoui, denounced "the inequity between the
resources of the defense and the prosecution in the United States. I
have the impression that we are heading toward vengeance, and not
toward a serene justice," he said.
His
mother maintained her son was innocent. "My son is not an
assassin," she said.
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U.S.
Attorney General Ashcroft |
U.S.
Justice Department attorneys "have filed a notice of intent to
seek a sentence of death" for Moussaoui, (allegedly) linked to
the attacks which killed some 3,000 people, U.S. Attorney General John
Ashcroft, a strong supporter of the death penalty, said at a news
conference in Miami, reported Agencie France-Presse (AFP).
Moussaoui,
33, was charged on December 11 with conspiracy to commit acts of
terrorism, acts of aircraft piracy, conspiracy to destroy aircraft and
conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, according to court
documents. Four of the six counts brought against Moussaoui carry a
maximum sentence of death, reports the Post.
The
U.S. government will seek the death penalty in relation to these
charges based on the findings that Moussaoui engaged in the offenses
"in an especially heinous, cruel, and depraved manner in that
they involved torture and serious physical abuse to the victims."
The
actions of the defendant, "resulted in the deaths of
approximately 3,000 people from more than 15 countries [the largest
loss of life resulting from a criminal act in the history of the
United States of America]," they conclude.
Moussaoui
was under arrest in Minnesota for visa violations when 19 hijackers
slammed three airliners into New York's World Trade Center and the
Pentagon outside Washington, with a fourth crashing in Pennsylvania,
killing more than 3,000 people.
Prosecutors
allege that Moussaoui was supposed to be the "20th
hijacker," and Ashcroft has said he "engaged in the same
preparation for murder" as his alleged 19 accomplices of the
al-Qaeda network.
Moussaoui
is the only person charged in the September 11 terror attacks in the
United States.
Federal
Judge Leonie Brinkema has set a September 30 trial date and entered
pleas of not guilty to all charges on Moussaoui's behalf after the
defendant refused to plea.
"In
the name of Allah, I don't have anything to plead. I enter no
plea," said the bearded, balding Moussaoui, on December 11.
In
the United States, declining to plead is legally equivalent to
entering a not guilty plea.
Frank
Dunham, a lawyer for Moussaoui, speaking to CNN commenting on
Ashcroft’s comments, said, "I can only give you no comment…I
don't believe in trying cases in the press. Apparently the attorney
general does."
Dunham
sad that Ashcroft's announcing the death penalty filing at a news
conference was "disgraceful conduct" that could prevent
selection of an impartial jury, news agencies reported.
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.
He
later allegedly formed strong ties with extremists 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.
According
to CNN, the U.S. government alleges Moussaoui's actions leading up to
the attack followed the same pattern as those of the hijackers: He
took flying lessons, allegedly trained at an al-Qaeda camp and
allegedly received money from a man who also sent funds to the some of
the hijackers.
According
to news agencies Moussaoui received money in July and August from
Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, an alleged member of a German cell who was a
roommate of Mohammed Atta, the suspected ringleader in the attacks,
the indictment said.
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.
Moussaoui
then left for a Pan Am International Flight School in Minnesota.
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.
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