The trial of French national Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person indicted for involvement in last year's 11 September attacks on New York and Washington, begins next month amid disagreement between France and the US over the possible use of the death penalty, writes David Tresilian from Paris The dispute between France and the United States over the treatment and forthcoming trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the 34-year-old French national charged with being the 20th man in the conspiracy to hijack the aircraft used in the attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September last year, took a new turn last week when Dominique de Villepin, French minister of foreign affairs, announced that the French government had officially informed the United States that France did not wish Moussaoui to face the death penalty "at any moment" in his trial, which opens in a Federal Court in Alexandria, Virginia, at the end of September. "France is guided by two fundamental principles in this case," de Villepin said. "The first is a duty to assist [Moussaoui]. The second is the refusal of the death penalty. We do not wish to see the death penalty applied to one of our nationals, and we have informed the United States that we do not wish to see a decision of this kind taken at any moment." De Villepin's comments came at a time of growing confusion surrounding Moussaoui's fitness to stand trial and to conduct his own defence, which he is doing in accordance with a request granted by presiding judge Leonie Brinkema following his refusal to cooperate with court- appointed lawyers. Moussaoui, who is from Narbonne in the south of France where his family still lives, was arrested on 17 August 2001 in Minneapolis for not keeping his papers up to date while in the United States, where he had been since February 2001 learning how to fly jet aircraft at flying schools in Oklahoma and Minnesota. Known to the authorities in France and in the United Kingdom for having made frequent trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan in the late 1990s and believed to be close to certain extremist Islamist groups, Moussaoui was transferred to the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in New York shortly after the 11 September attacks and subsequently charged with being the so-called "20th man" in the group of 11 September hijackers. While there were five hijackers on each of the planes that hit the World Trade Centre in New York and on the plane used to hit the Pentagon in Washington, there were only four on United Airlines Flight 93, which left Newark Airport in New Jersey on the morning of 11 September bound for San Francisco, but which was hijacked and crashed in Pennsylvania not far from Pittsburgh. According to US prosecutors, had Moussaoui not been arrested on 17 August he would have been the fifth hijacker on UA Flight 93. In pre-trial hearings held on 18 and 25 July, Moussaoui at first pleaded guilty to four of the six counts against him, all of which could bear the death penalty, but then withdrew his plea on the advice of the judge, deciding to plead not guilty during the second hearing on 25 July. Moussaoui told the court on 18 July that he was pleading guilty to the four counts of conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy, conspiracy to destroy aircraft, and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, saying that he was "a member of Al-Qa'eda, and I pledge allegiance to Osama Bin Laden". In what may have been an attempt at plea-bargaining, offering to cooperate with the authorities in return for a reduced sentence as the "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh had done at his trial in order to avoid the death penalty, Moussaoui said that "I want to plead guilty because that will save my life. If I plead guilty, I can prove that I have knowledge relating to 11 September. I know exactly who did it, which group, who participated and when it was decided." The judge at first rejected Moussaoui's plea, warning him that "what you say can be used against you" and entering a plea of not guilty on his behalf. When Moussaoui refused to accept this, the judge adjourned the hearing until 25 July. When the court reconvened, Moussaoui was told that if he pleaded guilty, this would seal his guilt on all the counts against him. Moussaoui then announced that he had changed his plea to not guilty "because of obligations towards the Creator, Allah, to save life... Suicide is forbidden in Islam, and I cannot rationally accept the conditions you have placed on my intention to plead guilty, since this would be tantamount to choosing death." Last week's dramatic change of plea, together with Moussaoui's increasingly eccentric behaviour, has focused attention on the conditions in which he is being kept and the procedures followed at the pre-trial hearings. In April 2002, a psychiatric evaluation carried out on Moussaoui found that he was in a good state of mental health and was capable of carrying out his own defence, subsequent requests for a re- evaluation being turned down by the judge. However, 11 months kept in a small cell in solitary confinement with lights on 24 hours a day and little contact with the outside world may have affected Moussaoui's mental health, causing him to become increasingly incoherent and aggressive. Over the last few weeks, Moussaoui has begun writing letters in broken English from his prison cell to institutions in Europe, including the European Court of Justice, the European Parliament, the German Parliament, the Dutch Parliament and the British House of Commons, drawing attention to his case, complaining of American "hypocrisy", claiming that there was a plot in prison to kill him, and including sarcastic references to the case against him. "Continue Brinkema," Moussaoui wrote in one such letter, most of which have been cleared by the US authorities, "but don't forget that landing is always difficult. Believe me -- I'm a pilot." In written submissions to the court, Moussaoui has shown evidence of similar confusion and distress, heading them "Zacarias Moussaoui versus US godless government" and "Stop the cynical comedy, parody of justice directed by Brinkema." These developments, together with the ever-present threat of the death penalty being carried out should Moussaoui be found guilty, have caused concern in France, culminating in de Villepin's statement last week. Following the decision by US Attorney- General John Ashcroft on 28 March this year to allow federal prosecutors to request the death penalty in Moussaoui's case, several French groups, including the Magistrates Union (Syndicat de la magistrature) and the Human Rights League have requested that the French government withdraw cooperation with the American authorities unless the Americans give assurances that Ashcroft's decision will be reversed. Marylise Lebranchu, minister of justice in the socialist government voted out at the French elections in June, told reporters following Ashcroft's announcement that under Article Six of the treaty governing judicial cooperation between France and the United States, France could either refuse assistance, or make it conditional on certain demands. "Any document should only be passed on to the Americans to help them with their enquiries on condition that such document [is] not used to get a conviction carrying a death penalty," she said. Lebranchu also said that she had written to her American opposite number asking that Moussaoui be given a fair trial and that the death penalty be excluded from the proceedings, a request ignored by Ashcroft. At the same time, Michel Tubiana, president of the French Human Rights League, commented that "from the moment that the possibility of the death penalty is at stake, France cannot cooperate in the case against Zacarias Moussaoui in any way whatsoever, since to do so would be to violate the principles on which the country is based." Since then, Aicha Al-Wafi, Moussaoui's mother, together with the lawyers she has engaged on her son's behalf, has frequently denounced the attitude of the American authorities and the conditions under which her son is being kept. Convinced that her son "had nothing whatsoever to do with the attacks", Mme Al-Wafi said last week that following "11 months in solitary confinement without sleep and without anything decent to eat, he cannot think, and he has aged by 10 years". Following a visit to him in detention in New York, Mme Al-Wafi said that her son was "incapable of deciding anything", that he "had not understood the consequences of what he was saying last week" when he had at first pleaded guilty to the charges against him, and that he was in no condition to defend himself in court -- "his behaviour over the past few days shows this perfectly well." In prison, "he has deteriorated physically and psychologically such that I did not recognise him," she said. "I was shocked to see him in such a state." Francois Roux, a lawyer engaged by Mme Al-Wafi, commented that Moussaoui was "not in his usual state because of the conditions he's being kept in. They're appalling, like at Guantanamo Bay" [site of the American Camp X-Ray military base in Cuba, where suspected members of the Taliban and Al-Qa'eda are being held in detention]. Moussaoui is the only person to have been arrested in connection with last September's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. However, despite his apparent willingness to admit his guilt on the counts against him, at least temporarily, it may be difficult for prosecutors to secure a conviction. According to Jonathan Turley, professor of Constitutional Law at George Washington University writing in the Los Angeles Times, thus far "the hearings have shown without a shadow of a doubt that Mr Moussaoui is ignorant, aggressive, sexist, deranged, and a fanatical anti-Semite. However, he still could be innocent. A crime requires not only bad intentions, but also acts. The evidence against him is extremely weak." A further problem facing prosecutors is that even if they manage to convict Moussaoui on the charges against him it will be difficult to secure the death penalty, since to sentence someone to death for a crime he or she intended to commit, but in fact did not, would set a dangerous precedent and may be unconstitutional under the 8th Amendment, which outlaws "cruel and disproportionate" punishment. Thus, Michael Tigar, professor at the American University in Washington, told Le Monde in March that the case would finish up before the US Supreme Court, which would "never accept the imposition of the death penalty for conspiracy". In any case, the newspaper commented, it is unlikely that Moussaoui, even if he was a member of the 11 September hijackers as the US authorities allege, would have known much about the organisation for which he was working. According to Osama Bin Laden in a statement made in a video recording made public by the US authorities last November, most of the 11 September hijackers were not even aware that they were carrying out a suicide mission. Jury selection for Moussaoui's trial starts on 30 September.
