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Moussaoui lawyer sez his death would boost al-Qaeda
EXECUTING al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui over his role in the September 11 attacks would only make him a "hero" and draw young Muslims into extremist groups, his lawyers said in a US court today.Defence and prosecution counsel started an impassioned debate on the first day of the sentencing trial for the 37-year-old Frenchman, who is the only person to have been charged for the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. Moussaoui was detained in August 2001 and was in jail when the al-Qaeda hijackers struck. Prosecutors argue that Moussaoui deserves the death penalty because he knew about the attacks and could have prevented them if he had not lied to investigators. Moussaoui has rejected his court-appointed defence team and listened with barely a reaction as one of his lawyers said that execution would turn the avowed al-Qaeda follower into a martyr. Lawyer Edward MacMahon pleaded with the jury not to order a death sentence so that Moussaoui would "live on as some smiling face in a recruiting poster for Osama bin Laden". "Please don't make him a hero. He just doesn't deserve it," Mr MacMahon said. The lawyer said jurors should not use Moussaoui as "revenge" for the horror of September 11 or to make up for the "bureaucratic infighting and outright blunders", which he said were made by the US authorities before the attacks. Mr MacMahon rejected prosecution claims that Moussaoui was an integral part of the plot. The lawyer portrayed Moussaoui as "a strange Muslim loner" who had "failed miserably" in attempts to learn to fly. "He couldn't fly at all. Any plan that involved Moussaoui as a pilot was destined to fail," said Moussaoui's lawyer. Mr MacMahon said the Government had no evidence to prove that Moussaoui's failure to tell FBI investigators about September 11 had caused a single death. "What the Government wants you to believe is only a dream. Its most seductive quality is that we all wish it could have come true." Moussaoui's mother, Aicha El Wafi, watched events from an overflow courtroom in the complex and buried her face in her hands when she saw her son on a television screen. Prosecutors started their case by saying that Moussaoui had been an integral part of the September 11 plot. "One of the conspirators is among us, that man is the defendant," said prosecutor Robert Spencer. "... He lied so the plot could proceed. He lied and nearly 3000 people perished." Mr Spencer said that September 11 had been "a defining moment for a generation" in the US. "It started as an utterly normal day, which soon became a day of abject horror... within a few hours out of that clear blue sky came terror, pain, misery and death." Mr Spencer said the prosecution would prove to jurors "why Moussaoui lied and what effects those lies had". Moussaoui has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit attacks with al-Qaeda, though he has argued that he was not meant to be part of September 11 and that he was to take part in a second wave of attacks. Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-03-07 |
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