Zacarias Moussaoui defiantly cursed the US yesterday as he was handed down six life sentences.
Zacarias Moussaoui has started a life sentence in a maximum security prison after a final, defiant court appearance when he declared the US would never capture Osama bin Laden. Judge Leonie Brinkema handed down the sentence at a Virginia court a day after a jury of nine men and three women said Moussaoui should not receive the death penalty for his role in the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001.
"Mr Moussaoui, you came here to be a martyr and to die in a great bang of glory. But, to quote TS Eliot, you will die with a whimper," Ms Brinkema said.
Before the judge gave him six life sentences with no possibility of parole, Moussaoui smiled and flashed a V sign for victory. "God curse America. God save Osama bin Laden. You'll never get him," he shouted.
At one point, he addressed Rosemary Dillard, whose husband died in the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon. "I destroyed a life and she lost a husband. Maybe one day she can think about how many people the CIA has destroyed. You have a hypocrisy beyond belief. Your humanity is a selective humanity. Only you suffer. Only you feel," he said.
A day earlier, Moussaoui had declared his life sentence meant that "America, you lost - I won" but Ms Brinkema said the 37-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan descent was the real loser. "Mr Moussaoui, when this proceeding is over, everyone else in this room will leave to see the sun . . . hear the birds . . . and they can associate with whomever they want. You will spend the rest of your life in a supermax prison. It's absolutely clear who won," she said.
Relatives of the 9/11 victims gave the verdict a mixed reaction, with many expressing disappointment that Moussaoui would not face the death penalty.
Alexander Santora, whose son, Christopher, was a firefighter who died after the attacks, said Moussaoui deserved to die. "A bullet in his brain would have been a just reward," he said.
Patricia Reilly, whose sister, Lorraine Lee, was on one of the hijacked planes, said: "I feel very much let down by this country. In this country you can kill 3,000 people and not pay with your life. I believe he's going to jail and start converting other people to his distorted view of Islam."
Carie Lemack, whose mother, Judy Larocque, died on one of the aircraft that crashed into the World Trade Center, said her mother would have been pleased that Moussaoui was sentenced to life. "This man was an al-Qaeda wannabe who could never put together the 9/11 attacks. He's a wannabe who deserves to rot in jail," she said.
Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani said he thought the death penalty would have been a more appropriate sentence but he praised the jury and said justice had been done.
"I would have preferred a different verdict. But it does show that we have a legal system that we follow, that we respect it. And it is exactly what is missing in . . . a lot of the parts of the world that are breeding terrorism."
President George W Bush expressed sympathy with the families of 9/11 victims but said that Moussaoui had received a fair trial. "The end of this trial represents the end of this case, but not an end to the fight against terror."
Moussaoui's mother blamed France for not fighting harder for her son's case, and said his race and colour were partly to blame for the decision to sentence him to life in prison. "My son will be buried alive because France didn't dare contradict the Americans," Aicha el-Wafi said in Paris.
"I don't share the ideas and the words of my son in the court," she said, but it was "because of his words, his colour, his race, that he was sentenced to life".
