Moussaoui 'could have stopped 9/11 attacks'

US government prosecutors today argued that a terrorist conspirator who studied in London must be executed for causing the deaths of nearly 3,000 people by failing to tell what he knew of the September 11 attacks.

As Zacarias Moussaoui stroked his beard during his Virginia trial, and families of the September 11 victims watched on closed-circuit TV, prosecutor Rob Spencer described the horror of the 2001 attacks and laid blame on the only man charged over them.

“He lied so the plot could proceed unimpeded,” Mr Spencer asserted. “With that lie, he caused the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. He rejoiced in the death and destruction.”

He went on: “Had Mr. Moussaoui just told the truth, it would all have been different.”

A school teacher, a veteran of the first Gulf War and an Iranian-born Sunni Muslim woman are among the jurors who will decide whether Moussaoui is put to death or imprisoned for life.

Moussaoui, a 37-year-old French citizen who holds a master’s degree from South Bank University in London, has acknowledged his loyalty to the al Qaida terrorist network and his intent to commit acts of terrorism, but denies any prior knowledge of the September 11 plot.

His initial step into radical indoctrination is thought to have happened in the London’s Finsbury Park mosque where extremist Abu Hamza held lessons

His mother, Aicha el-Wafi, spoke up for her son in a CNN interview. “All they can have against him is the things that he said, the words that he has used,” she said, “but actual acts that he committed, there aren’t any.”

But Hamilton Peterson, who lost his father Donald and stepmother Jean on hijacked Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania, declared, “I want accountability.”

“I would like to have accountability after a fair trial for the world to see,” he said in the hallway outside the courtroom. “I believe Moussaoui is an excellent candidate for the death penalty. He is nothing less than a mass murderer.”

Moussaoui pleaded guilty in April to conspiring with al Qaida to hijack planes and commit other crimes.

To obtain the death penalty, prosecutors must first prove a direct link between Moussaoui and the September 11 attacks.

Prosecutors will try to link Moussaoui by arguing that the FBI would have prevented the attacks if only Moussaoui had told the truth to the FBI about his terrorist links when he was arrested in August 2001.

The defence argues that the FBI and other agencies knew more about the hijackers’ plans before September 11 than Moussaoui and still failed to stop the attacks.