US: Jury selection begins for Moussaoui sentencing

Finally, new cast members are joining the long-running legal drama of confessed al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui.

Jury selection begins today in Alexandria, Virginia, and is expected to take a month – an extraordinarily long period but typical in the slow-motion case that has laboured through the US courts for more than four years.

Their task: Decide whether the 37-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan descent is put to death or imprisoned for life.

Moussaoui, held for more than four years in the Alexandria Jail, is appearing in the heavily guarded courtroom a few miles from the Pentagon, one of the targets of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Few if any disclosures were expected as the primary task for the day was for 500 potential jurors to fill out questionnaires about their attitudes on the death penalty and knowledge of the case. The final list of questions was selected by US District Judge Leonie Brinkema from 89 proposed by prosecutors and 306 recommended by defence lawyers.

Moussaoui is the only person charged in the US in connection with the September 11, 2001 attacks – the deadliest in US history. Nearly 3,000 Americans died when 19 al-Qaida hijackers crashed four planes into New York’s World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.

Last April, against advice from his court-appointed lawyers, Moussaoui pleaded guilty to six conspiracy counts. He admitted he “knew of al-Qaida’s plans to fly planes into prominent buildings in the US and he agreed to travel to the US to participate in the plan.”

But during the terror attacks, Moussaoui was in jail in Minnesota on immigration charges, having aroused suspicion while training to fly Boeing 747 jumbo jets. And he claims he knew nothing of the September 11 plot.

Instead, he told Brinkema, he had been ordered by al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden to learn to fly a 747 into the White House as part of a different plot if the US refused to release Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, an Egyptian cleric. Rahman is serving life for crimes related to the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing and 1995 plots against New York landmarks.

Moussaoui vowed “to fight every inch against the death penalty.”

Once 12 jurors and six alternates are picked for the sentencing trial, opening statements are set for March 6. The trial could last one to three months.

The jurors will be asked to decide first whether what Moussaoui acknowledged qualifies for the death penalty and then, if so, whether he deserves it. If either answer is no, he will get life in prison.

Arguing for execution, prosecutors contend Moussaoui could have prevented the September 11 attack by telling investigators what he knew when arrested instead of lying about his intentions. The defence argues that Moussaoui knew less about 9/11 than the government, citing investigations that turned up multiple missed opportunities to possibly prevent the attacks.

Prosecutors and defence lawyers wanted to ask potential jurors about their knowledge and attitude toward Islam. Brinkema allowed such questions in previous terrorism cases.