- Title: USA: Zacarias Moussaoui gets life in prison for his part in 9/11
- Date: 4th May 2006
- Summary: (BN17) PARIS, FRANCE (MAY 4, 2006) (REUTERS) PATRICK BAUDOIN, LAWYER OF ZACARIAS MOUSSAOUI'S MOTHER MRS EL WAFI (SOUNDBITE) (French) LAWYER PATRICK BAUDOIN SAYING: "The jury avoided the death sentence, a barbaric punishment which would have only added a barbarous act to another one and in any circumstances it is obviously unacceptable. However, I can't really be delighted about the life sentence. In the United States this sentence cannot be reduced - that is to say that Zacarias Moussaoui will spend, in principle, the rest of his life in an American prison. This is a heavy sentence. I'm his mother's lawyer and for her it is obvious that although he has avoided the death penalty, it also means that it is a lingering death. BOOKS ON DESK AND LAWYER PATRICK BAUDOIN IN THE BACKGROUND
- Embargoed: 19th May 2006 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Usa
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVA7CIIYKMBRP3C319VZF0DD2D6K
- Story Text: Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person convicted in a U.S. court in connection with September 11, should spend his life in prison instead of being executed for his role in the hijacked airliner attacks, a jury decided on Wednesday (May 3).
"America you lost!" Moussaoui shouted as he left the courtroom after hearing the verdict. He clapped his hands and yelled, "I won!" The 37-year-old French citizen of Moroccan descent will be formally sentenced on Thursday morning (May 4).
The verdict was read by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema at the courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, and was read simultaneously before television cameras outside the courthouse by spokesman Edward Adams.
In the courtroom, Moussaoui sat praying silently as Brinkema read the verdict. He appeared to relax after she read that the jurors did not unanimously agree that a sentence of death should be imposed.
The jury did not find that Moussaoui's actions resulted in the deaths of about 3,000 people on that September day -- a central part of the government's demand for the death penalty.
"Listening to the result it's obvious that they thought that his role in 9/11, his knowledge of 9/11, was not very great and that played a significant role in the result we had," defence lawyer Gerald Zerkin said. Federal prosecutors had asked the jury to sentence Moussaoui to death, arguing his failure to tell law enforcement officers who detained him about the upcoming September 11 plot was tantamount to carrying out the attacks himself. But jurors, who spent about 41 hours deliberating before reaching the verdict, were divided on whether he should be executed.
Earlier this month the same jury of nine men and three women found Moussaoui eligible for the death penalty. The jury verdict followed a second, two-week phase of the sentencing trial.
Speaking in Paris, his mother's lawyer Patrick Baudoin said he was pleased with the jury's decision.
"The jury avoided the death sentence, a barbaric punishment which would have only added a barbarous act to another one and in any circumstances it is obviously unacceptable, " Baudoin said.
"However, I can't really be delighted about the life sentence. In the United States this sentence cannot be reduced - that is to say that Zacarias Moussaoui will spend, in principle, the rest of his life in an American prison. This is a heavy sentence. I'm his mother's lawyer and for her it is obvious that although he has avoided the death penalty, it also means that it is a lingering death," he said.
Moussaoui was arrested three weeks before the September 11 attacks and said he was meant to pilot a fifth airplane into the White House as part of the plot.
He pleaded guilty to six counts of conspiracy, three of which carried a maximum death sentence.
During his trial, Moussaoui said he had no remorse for the September 11 attacks in which about 3,000 people died. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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