Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person convicted for his role in the September 11th, 2001, hijackings in the United States, should spend his life in prison instead of being executed, a jury decided yesterday.
"America you lost!" Moussaoui (37) said as he left the courtroom after hearing the verdict. He clapped his hands and yelled: "I won!"
The verdict was read by US District Judge Leonie Brinkema at the courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, not far from the Pentagon, the site of one of the 2001 attacks.The French citizen of Moroccan descent will be formally sentenced today.
At the White House, President George W Bush welcomed the sentencing of the man he said "openly rejoiced" at the deaths on September 11th and said "evil" had been vanquished. "The end of this trial represents the end of this case, but not an end to the fight against terror," Mr Bush said. ". . . And we can be confident. Our cause is right, and the outcome is certain: Justice will be served. Evil will not have the final say."
In the courtroom, Moussaoui sat praying silently as the judge read the verdict. He appeared to relax after she read that the jurors did not unanimously agree a sentence of death should be imposed.
The jury did not find Moussaoui's actions resulted in the deaths of about 3,000 people on September 11th - a central part of the government's demand for the death penalty.
"No jurors found that the execution of Zacarias Moussaoui will create a martyr for radical Muslim fundamentalists and to al-Qaeda in particular," court spokesman Edward Adams said. "Three jurors found Zacarias Moussaoui's role in the 9/11 operation, if any, was minor," he said.
Nine jurors also gave weight to Moussaoui's unstable early childhood and dysfunctional family life, part of a defence presented by lawyers on their client's behalf. Anti-death penalty activists said the case showed US juries were less willing to impose capital punishment than in the past.
Federal prosecutors had asked the jury to sentence Moussaoui to death, arguing his failure to tell law enforcement officers who detained him about the September 11th plot was tantamount to carrying out the attacks himself. But jurors, who spent about 41 hours deliberating before reaching their verdict, were divided on whether he should be executed. - (Reuters)