Moussaoui retracts confession, seeks new trial

May 8, 2006, 23:12 GMT

Washington - Confessed September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, sentenced to life in prison last week, has asked to withdraw his guilty plea and wants a new trial, his lawyers said Monday.

The lawyers acknowledged that US law bars Moussaoui from withdrawing a guilty plea after a sentence is imposed, but said they filed his request anyway.

Moussaoui, the only person convicted in the US for the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, was spared the death sentence sought by US prosecutors when the jury reached its verdict Wednesday.

The life sentence was based on his April 22, 2005 guilty plea to all six charges in a US indictment that accused him of being part of the September 11 suicide hijackers' conspiracy.

But in a motion to the Alexandria, Virginia, court that tried him, Moussaoui retracted his earlier testimony that he had knowledge of the plot, saying it was 'a complete fabrication.'

He said the trial convinced him that he could get a fair hearing 'even with Americans as jurors' and that he now wanted to prove his innocence.

For that reason, he asked 'that the court permit to withdraw his guilty plea and have a new trial so that he may contest his guilt,' his lawyers said in a statement.

He said he was 'extremely surprised' by the verdict, and the fact that jurors 'set aside their emotions and disgust for me.'

But, in another bizarre aspect of his motion, Moussaoui said he still admits that he is an al-Qaeda member and repeated his statement that he came to the US as part of a 'separate operation' to kill Americans.

Throughout his trial, Moussaoui refused to cooperate with his court-appointed lawyers, believing they were part of a conspiracy to kill him.

On Monday, they said they had filed his motion despite its legal impossibility, 'given their problematic relationship with Moussaoui.'

A French national of Moroccan descent, Moussaoui was arrested three weeks before the attacks. US prosecutors argued that during questioning by FBI agents, he withheld information that would have stopped the plot.