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November 22, 2005
US: Video Linking of Islamist Moussaoui's Sentencing
1010 Wins relates that a federal judge has selected six sites for relatives and victims of the 9/11 atrocities to view the death penalty phase in the trial of Zaccarias Moussaoui (pictured, left).
US District Judge Leonie Brinkema said earlier today that federal courthouses in Manhattan, Long Island, Newark, Philadelphia, Boston, and Alexandria in Virginia will have closed circuit video links so that they can see the final phases of Moussaoui's sentencing, where prosecutors and defense teams will argue over whether he will receive the death sentence or life imprisonment.
In April, 37-year old Moussaoui pleaded guilty to being part of an Islamist conspiracy to fly planes into US buildings.
Judge Brinkema also allowed Moussaoui's defense attorneys until December 7 to present file descriptions of evidence which they believe could provide support to the defense case. She also ordered prosecutors to hand to his defense team the full classified report made by Justice Department Inspector General, Glenn Fine, who examined the FBI intelligence about al-Qaeda and terrorism prior to the 9/11 attacks. A censored version of this report was made public in June, and stated that the FBI missed opportunities to detect some of the 19 individuals who hijacked planes on September 11th, 2001.
The Justice Department is seeking the death penalty against Moussaoui, who is a French citizen of Moroccan descent. At the time of the 9/11 attacks he was in custody in Minnesota on immigration charges. The prosecution is expected to argue that he could have informed the FBI of the attacks before they happened.
Moussaoui said in April that he should not receive the sentence because he was "not 9/11 material" and the events were not his conspiracy. He said that he was part of a separate plot which aimed to fly a plane into the White House if the US did not release the blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman (pictured), who was jailed for life on October 1, 1995 for "seditious conspiracy". Rahman is widely credited with involvement in a bomb explosion at the World Trade Center, scene of the two plane bombings in 2001. The attack in the basement beneath the WTC in 1993 killed 6 people. Rahman is said to have tried to blow up New York landmarks, including the UN building and the FBI offices.
The jury selection for Moussaoui's sentencing trial will begin in February in Alexandria, Virgina.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 22, 2005 8:34 PM
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