Moussaoui's mother blames France for not fighting for son

Zacarias Moussaoui’s mother today blamed France for not fighting harder for her son’s case, and said his race and his colour were partly to blame for the US jury’s decision to sentence him to life in prison over the September 11 attacks.

“My son will be buried alive because France didn’t dare contradict the Americans,” Aicha El Wafi told reporters in Paris, where she had returned after a trip to the United States.

“I don’t share the ideas and the words of my son in the court,” she said, but added that it was “because of his words, his colour, his race, that he was sentenced to life”.

“I would have liked for France to say that he should be judged for what he did and not for what he said,” she said.

Immediately following yesterday’s verdict, El Wafi said on French radio that she felt “dead” and that he was convicted of crimes he didn’t commit.

El Wafi’s lawyer, Patrick Baudouin, expressed delight that the jury did not decide on the death penalty for Moussaoui, a Frenchman of Moroccan descent and the only person charged in the United States over the September 11 attacks.