1. Zacarias Moussaoui is serving life imprisonment without the possibility of parole at the Federal ADX Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.
46 Facts About Zacarias Moussaoui
1. 2.
On 16 August 2001, Zacarias Moussaoui was arrested in Minnesota by the FBI and charged with an immigration violation.
3.
Zacarias Moussaoui aroused suspicion while taking flight training courses in Eagan, Minnesota.
4.
On 11 December 2001, Zacarias Moussaoui was indicted by a federal grand jury in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on six felony charges: conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy, conspiracy to destroy aircraft, conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to murder United States employees, and conspiracy to destroy property.
5.
Zacarias Moussaoui was alleged by federal prosecutors to have been a replacement for the "first" 20th hijacker, possibly Ramzi bin al-Shibh.
6.
Zacarias Moussaoui's trial was seen in some circles as a barometer of the ability and willingness of the United States to give a fair hearing to terrorism suspects.
7.
Zacarias Moussaoui expressed contempt for the trial and court by introducing legal motions deriding Judge Brinkema, surprised onlookers by electing to represent himself in court, and rankled federal prosecutors by requesting the presence of captured al-Qaeda members as witnesses in his case.
8.
On 3 April 2006, Zacarias Moussaoui was found to be eligible for the death penalty.
9.
In giving their reasoning against recommending the death penalty, most jurors referenced Zacarias Moussaoui having an "unstable early childhood and dysfunctional family" and problems with his parents.
10.
Aicha el-Wafi, Zacarias Moussaoui's mother, was 14 when she was married to a man that she did not previously know, in Morocco.
11.
Five years later, Zacarias Moussaoui's parents moved to France, where he was born.
12.
Zacarias Moussaoui's mother has said that she believes two 'wounding' incidents in his French adolescence contributed to the formation of an extremist sensibility: the first the day that his school careers adviser pushed him towards minor, technical studies, with "the clear implication that he was only an Arab and would need nothing more," and the second the day that the father of his teenage sweetheart warned him off because he was an Arab.
13.
Zacarias Moussaoui has been known by other names, reportedly including Abu Khaled al Sahrawi and Shaquil while he was in Oklahoma.
14.
Zacarias Moussaoui holds a master's degree in International Business from South Bank University in London, having enrolled in 1993 and graduated in 1995.
15.
Zacarias Moussaoui was proselytised by groups such as al-Muhajiroun, who leafleted people attending moderate mosques such as that in Brixton.
16.
From 26 February to 29 May 2001, Zacarias Moussaoui attended flight training courses at Airman Flight School in Norman, Oklahoma.
17.
Zacarias Moussaoui was reportedly considered as a replacement for Ziad Jarrah, who at one point threatened to withdraw from the scheme because of tensions amongst the plotters.
18.
Plans to include Zacarias Moussaoui were never completed because the al-Qaeda hierarchy allegedly had doubts about his reliability.
19.
Clarence Prevost, the flight instructor assigned to Zacarias Moussaoui, began to have suspicions about his student.
20.
Prevost said later that in pre-simulator instruction, Zacarias Moussaoui would ask questions that had the right jargon but were otherwise nonsensical.
21.
Zacarias Moussaoui read through the 747 training manuals, but had a lack of understanding of the plane's systems.
22.
Prevost was confused as to why Zacarias Moussaoui would seek simulator time if he lacked basic plane knowledge.
23.
On 16 August 2001, Zacarias Moussaoui was arrested by Harry Samit of the FBI and INS agents in Minnesota and charged with an immigration violation.
24.
On 11 December 2001, Zacarias Moussaoui was indicted by a federal grand jury in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on six felony charges: conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy, conspiracy to destroy aircraft, conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to murder United States employees, and conspiracy to destroy property.
25.
The indictment of Zacarias Moussaoui named as unindicted co-conspirators Ramzi Bin al-Shibh and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, among others, for their role in the attack "to murder thousands of innocent people in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania".
26.
On 2 January 2002, Zacarias Moussaoui refused to enter any plea to the charges and so Judge Leonie Brinkema entered pleas of not guilty.
27.
However, Zacarias Moussaoui later requested the occasional assistance of attorneys to help him with technical issues.
28.
Zacarias Moussaoui made requests for access to confidential documents and the right to call captive al-Qaeda members as witnesses, notably bin al-Shibh, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi.
29.
Brinkema denied the motion to access confidential documents, although Zacarias Moussaoui was permitted to use several al-Qaeda prisoners as witnesses.
30.
On 27 March 2006, Zacarias Moussaoui testified that he and "shoe bomber" Richard Reid had planned to crash a hijacked airplane into the White House in the 11 September attacks.
31.
Zacarias Moussaoui refused legal representation for years; he entered confusing, insulting, and parallel court pleadings.
32.
Zacarias Moussaoui then prayed to Allah for the return of Al-Andalus and the deliverance of Ceuta, Melilla, India and Kashmir to the Muslims.
33.
Zacarias Moussaoui then offered a psychological analysis of Judge Brinkema:.
34.
Zacarias Moussaoui confessed that he lied about some of Moussaoui's classmates at an Oklahoma flight school.
35.
Zacarias Moussaoui, charged with conspiring to hijack planes and crash them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, was in jail in Minnesota when the Sept 11 attacks unfolded.
36.
Zacarias Moussaoui admitted he knew about the attacks and did nothing to stop them.
37.
On 3 April 2006, the jury in his case decided that Zacarias Moussaoui was eligible for the death penalty.
38.
At Moussaoui's sentencing trial, FBI agent Greg Jones testified that, prior to the attacks, he urged his supervisor, Michael Maltbie, "to prevent Zacarias Moussaoui from flying a plane into the World Trade Center".
39.
On 3 May 2006, the jury reached a verdict: that Zacarias Moussaoui be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
40.
On 8 May 2006, Zacarias Moussaoui filed papers with the federal court in Alexandria, Virginia requesting to withdraw his guilty plea, stating that his earlier claim of participation in the 11 September plot was a "complete fabrication".
41.
Zacarias Moussaoui said that he was "extremely surprised" that he was not sentenced to death.
42.
However, federal sentencing rules forbid pleas to be withdrawn after a sentence has already been executed, and Zacarias Moussaoui had already waived his rights to appeal.
43.
On 13 May 2006, Zacarias Moussaoui was moved from his holding cell in Alexandria, Virginia, and transported via JPATS to the supermax United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility, located near Florence, Colorado.
44.
On 31 July 2006, the 1,202 exhibits presented during the case of United States v Zacarias Moussaoui were posted online, marking the first time the exhibits of a criminal case in US courts were so published.
45.
The voice alleged to be bin Laden suggested that Zacarias Moussaoui's confession was "void" as it was a result of pressures applied during his incarceration.
46.
On 24 January 2008, Clarence Prevost, the flight instructor who led authorities to Zacarias Moussaoui, received a $5 million reward from the US government.