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- Moussaoui Fails in Bid to Withdraw 9/11 Guilty Plea
By Jerry Markon, Washington Post Staff Writer, Tuesday, May 9, 2006;
Facing transfer to the nation's toughest federal prison, Zacarias Moussaoui served up what may be his final legal surprise yesterday: The al-Qaeda conspirator said he was not involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror plot after all and wants a new trial to prove it.
His efforts were immediately rejected by a federal judge.
In a motion in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Moussaoui sought to withdraw his guilty plea and be granted a new trial "to prove my innocence of the Sept. 11 plot.'' The filing came four days after he was sentenced to life in prison, a punishment determined by a jury that heard Moussaoui testify during a seven-week sentencing trial that he had planned to fly a fifth hijacked airplane into the White House on Sept. 11.
Now, the French citizen says that testimony was "a complete fabrication.'' In an affidavit accompanying the motion, Moussaoui said he never met lead hijacker Mohamed Atta, didn't know the other 18 hijackers "or anything about their operation" and was taking flying lessons in the United States only to train for a second wave of attacks.
He also offered measured praise for the U.S. legal system he has spent the past four years attacking. Moussaoui said he lied on the stand because he assumed he would be executed "based on the emotions and anger toward me for the deaths on Sept. 11.'' But he was "extremely surprised" at the jury's verdict, he said, and now believes "it is possible I can receive a fair trial even with Americans as jurors.''
U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema summarily rejected Moussaoui's motion late yesterday, saying federal rules prohibit a defendant from withdrawing a guilty plea after being sentenced. "Because defendant was sentenced on May 4, 2006, his motion is too late and must be denied on this basis alone,'' Brinkema wrote.
Moussaoui can appeal her ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond, but legal experts said such appeals are rarely granted and would probably require a grievous legal error by the judge.
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