Man to plead guilty to 9/11

2005-04-19 09:48

Washington - Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person in the United States charged in connection with the September 11 terrorist attacks, has told the government he plans to plead guilty, The Washington Post reported in its Tuesday editions.

If a judge finds Moussaoui mentally competent, he could enter the plea as early as this week, the Post reported, citing sources familiar with the case.

The government accused Moussaoui of participating in an al-Qaeda conspiracy to commit terrorism that included the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

Contacted on Monday night by The Associated Press, prosecutors and defence attorneys in the case declined to comment on the Post report.

Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, tried to plead guilty in 2002 but then took back the plea a week later. The Post sources said US District Judge Leonie M Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, is scheduled to meet with Moussaoui this week to determine if he has the mental capacity to enter a plea.

Moussaoui was indicted in December 2001, but his trial has been delayed three times. In March the Supreme Court agreed with a lower appeals court that Moussaoui could not have access to three al-Qaeda witnesses and that the government could seek the death penalty.

- AP