Moussaoui Pleads Not Guilty
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Moussaoui's mother, Aicha El-Wafi, comes to court in Alexandria, Virginia, Thursday where her son pleaded not guilty to the charges against him |
ALEXANDRIA,
Virginia, July 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Zacarias Moussaoui,
the only person charged in connection with the September 11 attacks,
pleaded not guilty in the name of Allah at a federal court here
Thursday, July 25, 2002.
"Under
my obligation to my creator, Allah, to save and defend my life, I
withdraw my guilty plea," he said.
Moussaoui,
clad in a green jumpsuit, entered a plea of not guilty after
attempting to enter a guilty plea earlier in the day to four of the
six charges against him. Any of the four could result in the death
penalty.
By afternoon, he changed his plea to not guilty, based upon his
reading of Islam and quoting William Shakespeare.
"Hamlet said: 'To be or not to be, that is the question.' I say:
To plead guilty or not to plead guilty, that is the question."
"As a Muslim, I cannot endorse anything with the condition of
death," Moussaoui
said.
Judge Leonie Brinkema had earlier ruled that she would accept the
34-year-old Frenchman's guilty plea, but she would require him to
reveal his relationship with the network blamed for the September 11
attacks, as well as any responsibility he may have for the strikes by
four hijacked aircraft that killed more than 3,000 people.
"Did you agree to join members of Al-Qaeda to seize an
aircraft?" she asked.
Instead of answering, Moussaoui
asked for a recess. When he returned, he entered the plea of not
guilty.
His shadow defense team, court appointed attorneys that Moussaoui
dismissed after he was granted the right to defend himself, introduced
again a motion Wednesday, July 24, sealed by Brinkema, to postpone the
hearing. Lawyer Gerald Zerkin told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that it
was a request for another psychiatric evaluation.
Moussaoui
has deluged the court with handwritten notes on the hypocrisy of the
U.S. justice system and a conspiracy against him.
The more vitriolic among them, accusing Brinkema of being a Death
Judge and a Nazi SS officer and calling one of the psychiatrists
"Doctor Frankenstein," have worried his family.
Relatives say the strain of 11 months of solitary confinement and
constant artificial light is beginning to wear on him.
They were among those shocked by his announcement last Thursday that
he wanted to plead guilty, despite months of denials that he knew
nothing of Al-Qaeda, beginning last August, when he was arrested in
Minnesota on immigration violations.
Brinkema gave him a week to think it over, a week he said he did not
need.
"I want to plead guilty. I know who done it [the September 11
attacks] - which group, who participated," he said.
"It would help me to save my life. I pledge bayat [allegiance] to
Osama bin Laden. I am member of Al-Qaeda."
A psychiatrist judged Moussaoui
mentally fit in April. That opinion was the basis for Brinkema's
granting him permission to act as his own attorney.
At times, the French citizen of Moroccan origin has conducted his
defense eloquently. But his volatility, rage and often bizarre
accusations have at times cast doubt on his credibility.
Brinkema, for her part, could find that Moussaoui
does not fully comprehend U.S. law or that his speeches highlight a
mental incapacity to defend himself.
Earlier
in the day, Moussaoui
said he would plead guilty to some, but not all, of the charges filed
against him.
"I truthfully will plead guilty on some, but not all,
charges," Moussaoui
told U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema after she asked him whether
he still wanted to go ahead and plead guilty.
Moussaoui
noted that he will "argue the level of guilty," apparently
referring to the severity of his sentence.
"I do not want to be misunderstood that by pleading guilty I
endorse the entire indictment; there is enough factual basis for me to
plead guilty in a truthful manner," he added, as his mother,
Aicha el-Wafi, who had traveled from France, sat in the audience.
Moussaoui,
who was arrested in August on immigration violations, was indicted in
December on six counts of conspiracy to commit acts of international
terrorism, to hijack an airliner, to destroy an aircraft and to use
weapons of mass destruction, saying, "I want to plead only for
what I did, not for what they say I did."
He faces the death penalty on four of the federal charges. His trial,
in which he will serve as his own attorney, is scheduled to begin in
mid-October.
He
told the court he intended to plead guilty to four charges in the
indictment, but not to two charges accusing him of attempting to
murder government employees and attempting to destroy property.
Last
week, Moussaoui entered a guilty plea - stunning the court by saying
he was a part of Al-Qaeda, had knowledge of the September 11 attacks
and had pledged his allegiance to Osama bin Laden - which Brinkema
refused to accept, telling him to think about the plea and gave until
today, July 25, to think about it.
Brinkema addressed questions as to Moussaoui’s mental competence and
capacity to understand the legal nuances of the five federal charges
against him as well, and ruled earlier in the day that Moussaoui was
competent to plead guilty to terrorism charges.
Before
Brinkema ruled on Moussaoui’s mental competence and before he made
his statements, Brinkema rejected a request by Moussaoui's
court-appointed attorneys to delay Thursday's arraignment and to order
a full-scale mental evaluation.
The
lawyers, whom Moussaoui fired, citing as evidence more than a hundred
handwritten court briefs filed by Moussaoui - some making wild
allegations, have been arguing that they believe he is mentally ill
and unable to represent himself, reports news agencies.
Noting
that Moussaoui "obviously understood the court's admonition"
to stop filing repetitive motions, which the court did not receive a
filing from him in a week, Brinkema ruled, however, that, "His
pleadings are somewhat confrontational and somewhat unusual ... but
they do not give the court any basis to assume that the defendant is
not competent."
Frank
Dunham Jr., the lead defense lawyer, said Wednesday that a report from
defense mental health experts which concluded there was
"reasonable cause to believe that this defendant suffers from a
psychotic mental disease or defect and has been exhibiting marked
deterioration in his mental state since he was permitted to
proceed" as his own lawyer, reinforced their earlier view of
Moussaoui's illness.
Dunham
said the experts need more time to determine whether Moussaoui is
legally competent to proceed. Brinkema disagreed, reports news
agencies.
Brinkema
did note that Moussaoui’s mother had written the court urging that
her son's guilty pleas not be permitted.
Saying
the crux of the case against him is "whether I came to the U.S.
to commit acts of terrorism. ... That's what I want to talk to U.S.
people, Americans, who are my enemies," Moussaoui said the
government has not allowed him to tell what he knows to a grand jury,
and said he wanted to use Thursday's court session to divulge what he
knew about September 11, news agencies reported.
U.S.
officials believe Moussaoui was meant to be the 20th hijacker.
However,
the Washington Post reported in November that the FBI thought
another suspect, Ramzi Binalshibh, was the 20th hijacker, while Time
said in May that the FBI thought the Frenchman might have been on a
different suicide mission.
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