Zacarias Moussaoui

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Zacarias Moussaoui

Zacarias Moussaoui (born May 30, 1968 in Saint-Jean-de-Luz ) is a Frenchman of Moroccan descent who was charged with helping in preparing the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 in the United States and sentenced to life imprisonment in May 2006 . He is the only person ever convicted of direct involvement in the conspiracy to hijack airplanes on September 11, 2001 and pilot them into the World Trade Center and other targets in the United States.

Youth and Career, Al-Qaida Membership and Radicalism

Moussaoui was born in France , where he also spent his youth. In 1992 he moved to London and graduated from South Bank University with a degree in International Business. According to intelligence sources, Moussaoui visited the mosques of Brixton, which are considered strongholds of radical Islam, and the North London Central Mosque in Finsbury Park , where supporters of the Algerian Groupe Islamique Armé frequented. His radicalization took place in London under the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood and Saudi Arabian Wahhabism , a doctrine that was prone to violence and found its breeding ground in the fundamentalist circles around the Finsbury Mosque. From 1996, French authorities monitored Moussaoui and his contacts. Abu Hamza al-Masri preached at the North London Central Mosque. On February 7, 1996, he was sentenced to 7 years in prison, among other things for inciting murder . Zacarias Moussaoui's development into an al-Qaida member must have happened during his time in London.

Moussaoui is said to have been in Afghanistan from 1998 to 1999 and received training in the conduct of terrorist acts there. Moussaoui took flight lessons in Norman, Oklahoma, with Mohammed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi , two of the suspected 9/11 hijackers.

He was arrested on August 16, 2001 - four weeks before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon - in Minnesota , where he had been taking flight lessons to learn to pilot a Boeing 747 and among other things. a. was suspicious to an instructor because of his superficial aircraft knowledge. The reason for the arrest were violations of the entry regulations.

Moussaoui's state of mind and spirit

Some witnesses of the defense (including the psychiatrist Michael First) expressed doubts about Moussaoui's mental state, supposedly he is in paranoid schizophrenia have suffered. According to a defense attorney, he believed that President George W. Bush would release him; this is proof that Moussaoui has lost touch with reality .

Moussaoui himself once said that he had made contact with terrorist organizations out of loneliness. One psychologist described him as " socially isolated "; Moussaoui felt marginalized in France, complained about racism and had no one to support him.

Criminal proceedings

For information on the course and procedural specifics, see Criminal Procedure Law (United States) .

The proceedings were opened in October 2002. However, no evidence of Moussaoui's direct involvement in the attacks has yet been published. Moussaoui is a special case as an al-Qāida member and EU citizen arrested in the USA and charged in connection with these attacks in normal legal proceedings . Judy Clarke was his defense counsel .

Possibility of the death penalty

On October 2, 2003, Judge Leonie M. Brinkema ruled out a death sentence because the government denied her access to witnesses . However , on April 3, 2006, the jury determined that a death sentence was definitely in question - not least because of Moussaoui's admission on April 23, 2005. German authorities had previously stated that they would withhold Moussaoui regarding potentially incriminating information as long as the US judiciary did not renounce to demand the death penalty in Moussaoui's case. French Justice Minister Dominique Perben said on April 27, 2005 that when France passed on information about Moussaoui to the US authorities, they received a written declaration not to use the material in a death sentence.

judgment

On May 3, 2006, Moussaoui was sentenced to life imprisonment . The death penalty demanded by the public prosecutor's office was not pronounced because the jury was unable to reach a unanimous agreement on this issue. A parole is not possible. Moussaoui is serving his sentence in ADX Florence Federal Prison , a high-security detention facility in the US state of Colorado .

literature

  • Abd Samad Moussaoui, Florence Bouquillat: Zacarias Moussaoui - my brother . Pendo Verlag, Zurich 2002
  • Bob Graham: Intelligence Matters: The CIA, the FBI, Saudi Arabia, and the Failure of America's War on Terror . Random House, New York 2004

Web links

Commons : Zacarias Moussaoui  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Zacarias Moussaoui: The al-Qaeda fighter from Mulhouse , August 1, 2003
  2. ↑ Netzeitung.de ( Memento from April 25, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Moussaoui, zacarias
ALTERNATIVE NAMES زكريا موسوي; Shaqil; Abu Khalid al Sahrawi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French suspect of terrorism
DATE OF BIRTH May 30, 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint-Jean-de-Luz