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Denying 9/11 Role, Moussaoui Fires Lawyers, to Represent Himself
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U.S.
law enforcement transport Zacarias Moussaoui to court in
Alexandria, VA
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ALEXANDRIA,
Virginia, June 14 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A federal judge
here on Thursday, June 13, approved a request by French national
Zacarias Moussaoui, the first person charged in connection with the
September 11 attacks on the United States, to serve as his own counsel
in court.
For
his part, Moussaoui denied in court that he played any role in the
attacks.
Judge
Leonie Brinkema said Moussaoui was mentally competent to fire his
court-appointed lawyers and represent himself at trial.
“Mr.
Moussaoui is fully competent. I don’t see any basis to prolong this
issue. There is no evidence of delusion or strange behavior,” she
said.
Brinkema
said she felt a report by a court-appointed psychiatrist and comments
made by Moussaoui’s jailers showed he was mentally competent to
proceed on his own and represent himself.
However,
she said she thought it was “unwise” to do so and asked
Moussaoui’s current court-appointed lawyers to remain in the case
even though they pleaded for her to dismiss them.
Moussaoui
announced in April he wanted to fire his lawyers, partly because he
believed the government, his lawyers and the judge were part of a
conspiracy to kill him, news agencies report.
At
Thursday’s hearing, Moussaoui told Brinkema that the U.S. government
“knew I was not in contact with these people who were to have done
the hijacking.”
Moussaoui,
then, while in proceedings to determine his competency, kept asking
Brinkema for a chance to reveal a secret that would compel the
government “to withdraw the case today.”
Brinkema
repeatedly tried to cut him off, telling Moussaoui at one point that
“we’re not here for speeches.”
Moussaoui
first brought up that he had an undisclosed “secret” with a
psychiatrist, telling him he had “specific information regarding the
Sept. 11 attacks” and that his court-appointed lawyers want him
killed to keep him from revealing it.
Despite
comments like this, the court-appointed, Dr. Raymond Patterson,
concluded Moussaoui was not suffering from mental illness as he asked
to fire his lawyers and represent himself.
Moussaoui’s
court-appointed lawyers argued, with the support of two psychologists
they hired, that Moussaoui is probably mentally ill and needs more
testing before he makes a potentially fatal mistake.
Moussaoui
is charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism, pirate aircraft,
destroy aircraft, use weapons of mass destruction, murder U.S.
government employees and destroy property, news agencies report.
The
government has said it would seek the death penalty for Moussaoui.
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