Moussaoui called 'dirty Arab' by girlfriend's family

A witness called by US defence attorneys trying to spare the life of September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui said today he came from a broken home where his mother was repeatedly beaten, and has a history of mental illness in his family.

Jan Vogelsang, a clinical social worker, told the jury in Alexandria, Virginia, Moussaoui was in and out of orphanages the first six years of his life.

As a teenager, she said, he was rejected as a “dirty Arab” by the family of his long-time girlfriend, with whom he lived and won dance contests.

Vogelsang said at the outset of her testimony that she did not intend to make excuses for Moussaoui’s actions as a terrorist but wanted to explain how he had reached that point.

The jury has decided that lies he told federal agents a month earlier kept authorities from identifying and stopping some of the hijackers, making him responsible for at least one death that day and qualifying him for the death penalty.

Now jurors are deciding whether Moussaoui deserves execution or life in prison.