|
Moussaoui Challenges Death Penalty, Walker-Lindh Calls for Dismissal
|
|
Moussaoui
Walker Lindh |
With additional reporting by Neveen A. Salem, IOL Washington D.C.
WASHINGTON D.C., May 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – The Frenchman Zacarias Moussaoui challenged the government's right to seek the death penalty against him. Also, “U.S. Taliban” John Walker-Lindh’s lawyers asked for a complete dismissal of his case if a change of venue is not granted.
In court documents filed Wednesday, Moussaoui criticized the government's claim that the death penalty was appropriate because he allegedly participated in the Sept. 11 conspiracy and lied to federal agents in an effort to cover up the plot, the Washington Times reported.
The Times also reported that the judge sharply criticized Moussaoui for twice failing to meet with a court-appointed psychiatrist to determine if he were competent to represent himself as he demanded.
Moussaoui, 33, was charged with six counts of conspiracy, including conspiracy to destroy aircraft, use weapons of mass destruction and murdering U.S. employees. Four of the charges carry a possible death penalty.
Prosecutors believe Moussaoui was to be one of the hijackers on a plane that crashed in Pennsylvania on September 11th, but was detained on immigration charges before the attack.
Moussaoui, referred to by authorities as the “20th hijacker”, was in jail in Minnesota at the time, after staff at a flight school claimed he was “behaving oddly” - including what they reported as “his desire to learn how to turn an airplane but not to take off or land.”
In a closely related case, the lawyers of John Walker-Lindh, the American Muslim captured in Afghanistan and charged in a U.S. federal court for fighting alongside the Taliban, called that the case against him be dismissed. They claimed that the “atmosphere” in Northern Virginia was already tainted against him.
His lawyers asserted that courts in North Virginia would be biased against Lindh as it is the location of the Pentagon, where roughly 200 of its employees were killed in the attacks on September 11. This prompted the U.S. war on Afghanistan and the Taliban. They claim that Lindh would not get a fair trial due to the personal attachment Northern Virginians have to the attacks of September 11.
In an article in the Washington Post Friday, Lindh’s defense team commissioned a survey of Northern Virginia and found that 46% of Northern Virginians knew someone killed or injured at the Pentagon, vs. 3.4% in other areas of the country; and 69% of the people here had an unfavorable view of Lindh, vs. 60% elsewhere.
"Given the atmosphere of bias fostered by the government, a fair trial is not possible and Mr. Lindh's case should be dismissed [or] . . . transferred," the defense wrote in a 29-page motion filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, where the trial is scheduled, the Post reported.
"The defendant's lawyers have filed multiple motions throughout the week. We will respond to each of these according to the schedule set by the court," said Frank Shults, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Alexandria.
The defense team is calling for a change in venue and have also stated that a dismissal would be in order if that venue change is not granted.
Lawyers have very rarely been granted a change in venue and U.S. law states that persons charged with crimes abroad are to be tried either near their home, or at the location where they landed after returning to the U.S. Lindh landed at Dulles airport in Northern Virginia after being captured by U.S. troops.
Lindh originally hails from the Silver Spring area of Maryland, roughly a 30-minute drive form Northern Virginia; he later moved to California before traveling to Yemen and then Afghanistan.
Lindh faces 10 charges including conspiring to kill Americans abroad and aiding terrorist organizations. He goes to trial on August 26 and could get life in prison if convicted.
Lindh's lawyers also asked U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III to dismiss two charges of violating U.S. sanctions against the Taliban, the daily stated. His lawyers claim that Lindh, the first person to be charged with violating the trade ban, is “the victim of selective prosecution because the government has not charged several large companies that allegedly did business with the now-deposed Afghan regime.”
All 10 counts in Lindh’s indictment have been challenged by his lawyers.
There had originally been speculation as to whether prosecutors would charge Lindh with treason, a charge that the U.S. considers punishable by the death penalty.
However, the charges against Lindh stopped short of that in what many feel is the U.S. government utilizing a double standard because Lindh is a Caucasian convert, as opposed to Moussaoui who is Arab by origin and a Muslim by birth.
A non-scientific, random survey of 10 people in the Washington D.C. – Northern Virginia area conducted by IslamOnline found that roughly 7 firmly believe that Lindh is being treated differently from others captured in Afghanistan, and from Moussaoui, due to his ethnicity and the fact that he was not born a Muslim.
Almost all members of the sample group - which contained 3 Muslims/Arabs, 4 non-Muslim Caucasians (including one who considers himself “a secular Jew”), 1 Italian Catholic and two African American Baptists – cited the differences in treatment between Lindh and the captured Taliban and al-Qaeda members being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Several human rights organizations have criticized the U.S. or its treatment of the prisoners and for failing to refer to them as “prisoners of war”, which would force the U.S. to comply with Geneva conventions pertaining to the treatment of such prisoners.
The three subjects, including one Muslim, who state that they were not sure if Lindh was being treated any differently on the grounds of ethnicity, claimed, however, that there was a difference between him and Moussaoui, as “Moussaoui could have been the one flying the plane” that killed the people in Twin Towers and the Pentagon. They felt that Lindh’s actions were less dangerous.
When specifically questioned over whether or not Lindh was being treated differently from the Afghan and Arab prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, the 3 subjects reluctantly told IslamOnline that he may be treated differently because he is an American citizen, but none were sure what role they believed ethnicity played.
|
