Charges against '20th hijacker' to be dropped

The US government has called for all charges against alleged September 11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui to be dropped as part of a legal move to stop him speaking to al Qaida prisoners.f

The US government has called for all charges against alleged September 11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui to be dropped as part of a legal move to stop him speaking to al Qaida prisoners.

Moussaoui wants to question three al Qaida suspects who could give evidence to prove he was not involved in the terror attacks which killed more than 3,000 people two years ago.

But Washington has twice defied court orders granting him the right to contact the prisoners, who are being held in undisclosed locations outside the US.

Lawyers for the US government yesterday agreed that all charges against the man alleged to be the “20th hijacker” should be dismissed for this reason.

But Moussaoui, the only person in America to have been charged in connection with the plot, would not simply walk free.

Prosecutors asked District Judge Leonie Brinkema to issue a stay if she dismissed the case which would keep the charges in place while the government mounts an appeal.

Part of that appeal to a higher court would be to challenge the original ruling that Moussaoui should have the right to contact the “enemy combatants”.

The Justice Department argued that testimony by the prisoners would reveal classified information and jeopardise national security.

It added that if the government lost the appeal the case might be moved to a military tribunal.

Lawyers for Moussaoui, from Norman, Oklahoma, called for the dismissal, saying the refusal to grant him access to the three prisoners meant he could not receive a fair trial.

Moussaoui is charged with conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism, commit aircraft piracy, destroy aircraft and to use weapons of mass destruction. The charges carry the death penalty.

He is also charged with conspiracy to kill US government officials and destroy US government property.

He was arrested on immigration charges three weeks before September 11 when he aroused suspicion at a flight school in Minnesota.

In the event, the judge might not dismiss the case but place other sanctions on the government, such as limiting the sentence so that the death penalty cannot be handed down.

The three prisoners Moussaoui wants to question are alleged September 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and alleged terror planner, Ramzi Binalshibh. The third is Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, a suspected paymaster for al Qaida.

The Justice Department said in a statement: “We believe the constitution does not require, and national security will not permit, the government to allow Moussaoui, an avowed terrorist, to have direct access to his terrorist confederates who have been detained abroad as enemy combatants in the midst of a war.”