United States: September 11th conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui said yesterday he no longer wanted to be executed as the death penalty was not in line with Islamic teaching, but doubted his testimony held any sway with the jurors .
Moussaoui (37), who pleaded guilty to six counts of conspiracy in connection with the September 11th attacks, pulled back from statements made several times over the past four years that indicated he would welcome a death sentence. His lawyer Gerald Zerkin showed him a filing he made to the court in August 2002 in which he said the "greatest jihad in Islam is to speak the truth in front of the tyrant and be executed for it". Moussaoui said he no longer wanted to include the "and be executed" part of that statement, because he had consulted Islamic books and decided that violated Muslim religious beliefs.
Moussaoui testified for the second time in the sentencing trial, even though his lawyers had not wanted him to take the stand. He has refused to co-operate with those lawyers and was asked by one of them if he thought his attorneys were in a conspiracy to kill him. "I believe that you have in the last four years been dealing with criminal non-assistance of defence counsel," he said.
Moussaoui said in court last month that he was supposed to fly a fifth plane into the White House as part of the al-Qaeda hijacking plot. His testimony during the first phase of his trial contradicted his previous claims that he was not meant to be part of the September 11th hijacking, but was supposed to be in a second wave of attacks.
- (Reuters)